Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

For weeks, I and others have been raising questions with the Taoiseach about his Government's preparedness to handle the escalating industrial unrest in the public sector. It took a last minute breakthrough at the Labour Court a week ago to prevent the first all-out strike by An Garda Síochána in our nation's history. The cost of the deal that was done to keep An Garda Síochána on the beat will amount to much more than the €40 million or €50 million the Government has priced it at so far. Disruption of more than 500 secondary schools has, thankfully, been temporarily averted but there is still no clear line of sight to the end of that dispute. Day after day, matters get worse. On Tuesday, it was revealed that junior doctors will ballot over industrial action if they fail to secure the return of their accommodation allowance. Yesterday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, became the latest union to announce that it was proceeding to ballot on industrial action.

For weeks, I have tried to put the case for mechanisms to avert ongoing industrial unrest but the Taoiseach has resisted any initiative to put the Government ahead of the curve and to maintain the very precious industrial peace in the public sector that we have enjoyed over recent years. Repeating the mantra that the Lansdowne Road agreement is the only show in town is no longer tenable. A queue of public sector union leaders - the people who negotiated this agreement - say publicly that the terms of the agreement have been breached. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announced yesterday that the Government had reiterated its commitment to a collective approach to industrial relations and pay policy. As the Taoiseach knows, that is quite different to sticking to the Lansdowne Road agreement. The language used by Government was opaque. I want the Taoiseach to spell it out now. Am I right in saying that the Government has finally accepted that there is a need for a successor agreement to the Lansdowne Road agreement to be negotiated now - much earlier than the date indicated so far - so that public servants can have a clear path to pay restoration?

If so, will the Taoiseach also adopt the other suggestion I have been pushing for some time now, namely, to create a discussion that is broader than pay to make sure that public servants are involved in conversations about the investment that is needed in public services because I know that gardaí, nurses, teachers, doctors and public servants of all hues want to ensure that their services are maintained and enhanced as well as their own pay? It is already very late in the day for the Government to be proactive and forward thinking on the crucial issue of public service pay but it is not too late. Will the Taoiseach act now to prevent a free-for-all?

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