Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned that the Minister of State thinks the process currently in place is adequate. Let us talk about the conciliation and arbitration process in place and why I say it is dysfunctional. Government recently agreed that the WRC Garda settlement will be on the terms of the Lansdowne Road agreement, and the Department allowed for negotiations to take place between the officers of the public services committee, PSC, of ICTU and officials of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, DPER. This began in December 2016, concluded in January 2017 and reached Cabinet approval on 17 January. Following this, officials from DPER met RACO on 17 January, the same day Cabinet approved it, to inform RACO of the outcome of the negotiations with ICTU regarding the talks on the Garda anomaly. At this point, Government had already agreed its position. This effectively meant that no consultation took place with RACO. Consultation only took place with the PSC of ICTU. This means that the parallel process designed for consultation and negotiation with the representative associations is dysfunctional because no consultation happened.

The decision of Government communicated to RACO on 17 January contradicted the statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, that under the first phase parties to the Lansdowne Road agreement were invited to discussions under section 6 of the agreement. Does the Minister of State not accept that the fact there had been no consultation of any description with RACO prior to that media release of a new agreement on the Lansdowne Road agreement contradicts every aspect of Government's commitment? The agreement between the public service committee of ICTU and Government deliberately excluded RACO. Is that not another clear example supporting the RACO claim that the parallel process is dysfunctional, placing members of the Defence Forces at a significant disadvantage relative to those who enjoy trade union membership? It is the Minister of State's job to fix this imbalance.

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