Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Green Party believes it is right to take politics out of the pay of Deputies and Senators and to manage it within the Lansdowne Road agreement or whatever successor agreement should follow it. We are not civil servants, but we are public servants and we would do our jobs better if we managed our pay as part of a collective agreement around pay involving other public service unions. That is in support of the Lansdowne Road agreement which is in need of support at this time of real challenge to how we manage our budget and allocate resources. It is interesting that we have seen the different arguments about it and that gardaí have effectively joined it.

This morning, I attended the ASTI picket line to talk to teachers about their resolution to the crisis. It is what my colleague Deputy Catherine Martin has been saying for some time. The key issue to resolve is equal pay for equal work. New entrants, younger teachers and nurses and other public servants need to have their starting pay rates restored to the levels their older colleagues started on. That is the key development we seek. It is for that reason that we would amend the Sinn Féin motion to say that the implementation of the Lansdowne Road agreement in relation to Deputies' pay should be contingent on agreement from the Government on how we get to that basic right of equal pay for equal work.

I listened intently to the Taoiseach today and he did not answer the question on the teachers' strike and give a clear commitment that we will restore pay. That might not happen through the Lansdowne Road agreement; there may have to be a successor agreement. There should be a clear commitment from the House that we would have basic pay restoration. That is fair and it is right to make our own pay arrangements contingent on a wider agreement with the public service, Civil Service and public servants on their pay arrangements. That is the approach we would prefer.

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