Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first duty of the public pay commission announced today will be to look at the question of how the legislation should be dealt with in a strategic and focused manner. Obviously, as the Deputy is well aware from his time in office, prudent management of the economy in terms of public sector pay is very important. Given the nature and scale of the numbers involved and the number of unions that have signed up to negotiated agreements in regard to Lansdowne Road, we hope this can continue.

As I said, the ASTI, the AGSI and the GRA are the subject of the full attention of both the Minister for Education and Skills and the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality. The Labour Employer Economic Forum met the week before last for a very good engagement between union and employer representatives about the nature of the challenges that lie ahead. It was not a negotiating or decision-making meeting but a means of pointing out their respective concerns and the challenges they see ahead. I found it very useful.

Given the sensitivity of where we are now, I do not have a report from NESC on my desk pointing out the way ahead. NESC is well aware of the law and its legal requirement under that. I am more concerned about the immediacy of making progress on very sensitive issues involving the ASTI, the GRA and the AGSI. I hope the representatives of the three groups involved will meet again with Ministers and their officials and work out, within the constraints of the Lansdowne Road agreement, a way forward. Everything that can be done will be done. Nobody wants to see this happen.

While we do not have the wherewithal to restore pay, it has to be done in an ordered, focused and strategic manner, as is evident from the agreed outcome of the discussions between the Minister for Education and Skills, the TUI and the INTO. The benefits will be available tomorrow to the ASTI. I ask its members to reflect very carefully on what their losses are because of the failure to agree on a negotiated settlement that two other very substantial unions have put in place and in respect of which progress is being made towards what will happen in the future. The same is open to the ASTI.

On the questions raised by Deputies Brendan Howlin and Gerry Adams, obviously no one wants to see the withdrawal of 12,500 gardaí, for whatever reason, from the streets and villages of the country. I hope responsibility will be evident in the discussions, from the Minister's and the Tánaiste's points of view, and from both associations. We have made progress in difficult circumstances and can and will make further progress. Clearly, the way ahead in respect of the FEMPI legislation will be pointed to by Professor Horgan and the public pay commission and the principle of access to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court for members of An Garda Síochána will be accepted by the Government.

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