Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The most pernicious lie is when we are told that if we restore the rights of teachers and firefighters, we would have to cut services. I have spoken about how 11 beds have been cut from the Linn Dara unit because the HSE cannot recruit or retain nurses to provide adolescent psychiatric care. This is because the HSE does not pay nurses enough and treats them unequally. As a result, nurses cannot afford to pay the rents being charged in this country. Services are being cut when their pay is cut, and this is happening particularly in the health sector.

It is amazing how commentators who want to go after the public sector do not give a damn about the homeless and vulnerable most of the time. When it comes to restoring pay, however, they say that it cannot be done because it would hurt the homeless and vulnerable and that we must look after them. They argue that if we restore pay, we would have to cut fire and health services even more. The hypocrisy is astonishing. The choice is not between these workers and the homeless or the sick but rather between the vulnerable and the wealthy, such as the bondholders and developers whose profits and dividends are back to pre-2008 levels. The issue is not that funds are unavailable but, rather, that there is no political will available.

I can provide two examples. We have written off the debts of employers who claimed insolvency and failed to pay their workers' redundancies. We will deal with a redundancy Bill during Private Members' time later. We continue to give tax breaks to vulture funds and real estate investment trusts, and we give charity status worth billions of euro to vulture funds that make billions from property that is practically being given away to them. The real purpose of the FEMPI legislation is not to save money for the State, because it does not have to save money on public sector workers. The FEMPI legislation is putting down a benchmark for all workers, in the public and private sectors, indicating that their rights and pay are to be curtailed. I can see how this would spill over to the private sector, particularly in regard to pensions. Irish Life has a solvent pension fund with much money in it but it is being cut to bits and the defined benefit scheme is being taken away from thousands of workers. The company is taking its example from the top. The fish rots from the head and the Minister has given private sector employers a good example of how to go after workers' pay. This is a gross injustice.

In the public sector, 40,000 pensioners who have given this State great service but who have retired from work will die and never get the restoration of the pay they deserve at the current rate at which the FEMPI legislation is being unwound. At the other end of the spectrum, young workers are grappling with rents and the cost of living. They are being told that pay equality is something we cannot afford. Many of them will lose at least €100,000 in the course of their working lives as a result. The recession has seen massive increases in attacks on all workers in precarious employment and low hours but all aspects of this happening in the private sector can be seen with the FEMPI legislation. By forcing these cuts and using State legislation against public sector workers, the Minister is effectively colluding in a race to the bottom, all in the name of keeping things competitive. It is outrageous that anybody who claims to represent workers could fall for this nonsense. The worst lie trotted out is that people must be paid at a lower rate in order to keep services running. We can look at losses suffered by low-paid workers and find that those earning approximately €25,000 per year have lost nearly a year's wages already because of this legislation.

I wish to move a motion that is on the Order Paper. I will not read it because it will eat into Deputy Boyd Barrett's time. It is signed by many Deputies but I am sure we will not get to vote on it.

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