David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:accepts that:

— the legacy of eight years of cuts to pay and public services continues to place enormous pressure on ordinary people and households;

— there is a two-tier recovery and the majority of households have yet to see any discernible difference in their everyday lives; and

— pay equality within the public sector remains an outstanding legacy issue of the crisis and bailout and needs to be tackled;

acknowledges that the Budget 2017 measures announced on 11 October, 2016 do not tackle pay inequality in the public sector in any substantial way nor do they tackle the two-tier recovery and its effect on the majority of households; and

calls on the Government to stop pay restoration due for Teachtaí Dála, Senators, Ministers of State, Ministers and the Taoiseach as part of the Lansdowne Road agreement.

I am proud of the fact that my party has tabled this motion for consideration by the House. I was hoping that the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party would accept the motion. I note that Ministers, Ministers of State and the Taoiseach have said they will not accept the pay increases, which is interesting and I welcome that fact. However, they do not seem to want to extend it to Members of this Dáil, which is a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Fianna Fáil Party to explain.

This is an issue of fairness. The Minister may disagree, which he is entitled to do, but for me, this is a core issue of fairness. It is also an issue of leadership. I have listened to the Minister's utterances in the last number of weeks on public sector pay and on the reasonable demands that are being made by workers right across the public sector, be they gardaí, nurses or teachers. They are demanding that core issues are dealt with, most particularly the issue of equal work for equal pay but the Minister is not in a position to say that he will commit to that, implement and deliver it. He is preaching pay restraint to public sector workers earning less than €65,000 who are not getting any realistic levels of pay restoration. At the same time, he is presenting an agreement which prioritises pay restoration for those earning more than €65,000, including Teachtaí Dála.

Let us look at the figures. A Deputy is paid a salary of €87,258 per year. I believe that Deputies should be, and are, reasonably well paid. We earn a salary which is 2.5 times the average industrial wage. The situation is that on 1 April next - whatever genius civil servant came up with that date did not do irony - or on April Fool's Day, those earning more than €65,000, including Deputies, will get the first tranche of their pay restoration, followed by the second tranche on 1 January 2018. That means that Deputies will receive an increase of €5,400 or €100 per week. Average public sector workers, those who work on the front line like gardaí, nurses, teachers, those who clean the streets, who work in our local authorities and so forth, are on an average salary of €40,000 and will get €1,000 in pay restoration, equivalent to €20 per week. When one takes taxes into account, the amount is actually a lot less. Deputies and those earning more than €65,000 will get €100 per week. How can the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform sit there and say that is fair?

The excuse used by the Minister to justify this is that Deputies' pay is linked to grades in the civil service and in that he is correct. However, so too is the pay of Ministers, Ministers of State and the Taoiseach. If the principle is so precious, how is it that the Government is able to break it for Ministers? The Government knows that it simply would not wash that Ministers and Ministers of State would take the proposed increases, which for Ministers would have been 10% and for the Taoiseach, up to 14%. The Government knew this would not wash and could not be justified and it was right about that. I welcome the fact that the Government acknowledges this and that Ministers are not taking the pay increase. However, Deputies seem to be special and can be treated differently but I do not believe that is justifiable or right.

The Minister cannot come into this House, as he has done in the past, and argue that we cannot do this because Deputies cannot set their own pay levels or break the parity between civil servants' pay and that of politicians when the Government is breaking that parity in the context of Ministers, and rightly so. That is a red herring and the Minister knows it. There is nothing stopping Deputies from collectively taking a decision in this House on this matter. This is a time when we have huge industrial unrest and genuine grievances among public sector workers whose demands are not being met by the Minister or the Government. Despite several attempts by Deputy Adams and others to get the Government to commit to the principle of equal work for equal pay, the Government says "No", turns its back and will not give such a commitment. It is telling those who came into the public sector in 2011, who are doing the same work for less pay, that it will not deal with them, that they will have to wait. There is no timeframe for when the Government will deal with this issue but when it comes to Deputies, there is certainty and pay restoration. How can the Minister justify pay restoration for those earning more than €65,000 but not for those earning less than that amount? That is what I mean by fairness and leadership.

The Government, in this year's budget, increased the minimum wage by 10 cent per hour. The lowest paid workers in this State were given a pay increase of 10 cent per hour but Deputies will get €100 per week. There are many people for whom an increase of €100 per week is unimaginable but for Deputies, it is a reality. The public cannot understand how that can be possible when we have the real problems that are pressing down on so many families in this State. Budget 2017 was known as the "fiver budget" - a fiver for those on welfare and a fiver for most people, including Deputies, who will also benefit from the tax cuts in the budget. However, there is an additional bonus for us in the form of pay restoration of €100 per week. It is simply not fair.

The Minister needs to commit to a new pay agreement and to realise that the Lansdowne Road agreement is dead in the water. He also needs to realise that it is simply not fair or sustainable to stumble on until September 2018 with his head in the sand, pretend that what is happening around him is not happening, hope all the noise will go away, that the reasonable demands from nurses, gardaí and teachers will go away and do deals here and there that will get him over a hump or through a week or two. It will not work. The Minister is facing real discontent if he does not face up to the real sores in the public service at the moment.

The Minister must put this in the context of our public services. The difference between my party and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is that we value public services. We want genuine, world class public services. We want to invest in our health service, to make sure that those who are working in it get the best possible support and are operating in hospitals that have sufficient bed capacity. We want schools that have proper buildings rather than prefabs. That is the vision we have. We want world class public services and we want decent pay and equality for public servants. This Government turns its face against that but when it comes to Deputies' pay, anything is possible. Pay restoration for Deputies is written in stone and cannot be undone but in reality, it can.

Sinn Féin Deputies have made it clear that we will not be taking this pay increase. I have listened to some of the responses from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Deputies on this issue and they get very defensive about it. I raised this issue with the Minister previously and he asked me what I do with my money. In asking such a question, the Minister is trying to conflate separate issues. Sinn Féin Deputies have never said that we do not draw down our full salaries from the State. I draw down my full salary of €87,258 and I use some of it to employ somebody in my constituency. That is what I do but that does not have an impact on the taxpayer. Accepting this pay increase of €5,400, however, would have an impact on the taxpayer. It would impose an increased cost on the Exchequer but worse than that - and this is what the Minister does not understand - it would demonstrate a very poor lack of judgment and leadership on my part. The Minister and his Government came into this House and presented a budget that gave €5 to the most vulnerable and to most working families but did not deal with the real issues and challenges in health, housing, child care and so on. The Government is telling public servants, who are doing a fantastic job on the front line, that they will have to wait. It preaches wage restraint and argues that pay equality cannot be achieved because the country cannot afford it. It seems we cannot afford any of these things but we can afford pay increases for Deputies.

That is as much a matter for Fianna Fáil as it is for Fine Gael. We have a chance here tonight and tomorrow when the vote is taken to say collectively in one voice, as Members of this Parliament, that we believe in fairness and are showing leadership and that at a time when reasonable demands are being made by those in the public sector earning less than €65,000 per year that are not being met by the Government, we do not believe we can accept these wages increases. It simply would not be fair. At a time when so many other things are happening, we have so many other demands and when the Minister says "No" and turns his face to them, it would be wrong and send out entirely the wrong message if this should happen. I appeal to Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party, which says it is the party of working people, to support our motion.

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