Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I might be alone among the Members currently in the Chamber as having been in Government Buildings on the night the pension levy was introduced in 2009. There are many, including all the civil and public servants working tonight, who will remember that. Should they ever forget, there is a handy reminder in every pay packet they receive. At the time, we did not know what FEMPI was and continued to call it the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts. Some in the public service could not believe it would happen. People did not believe the Fianna Fáil-led Government of the time would go to war with civil and public servants or attack them. Little did we know in 2009 that it was to be the first of many attacks on civil and public servants. As a trade union organiser, I joined other representative organisations to form the 24/7 alliance. It was specifically formed because the belief among shift workers and those with unsocial hours such as firefighters, gardaí, prison officers, nurses and so on was that once the Government had started with that measure, it would then go after those receiving premium pay packets. We were right to come together to fight that measure at the time and the 24/7 alliance had a huge impact because it was trade unionism and collective activism at its most core and basic level.

In his contribution, the Minister advised Members that nobody should underestimate the extent to which those emergency measures have contributed to the great improvement in our public finances. Equally, nobody should underestimate the extent to which those measures begun by Fianna Fáil and taken up with a degree of enthusiasm by Fine Gael are currently causing huge problems in the public service, in particular in regard to recruitment. I refer to the pay inequality caused by the two-tier pay system. Sinn Féin has for some time been calling for a fair and timely unwinding of FEMPI from the bottom up in order that those on the lowest incomes will be first to benefit, ahead of those on high incomes.

Any Deputy who has been visited by representatives of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, or the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, as most Deputies probably have, will tell the Minister that the two-tier pay structure is contributing to emigration. However, it is doing more than that. I represented nurses for a long time. Many people correctly say that nurses often emigrate for a year after they graduate. However, such nurses are now not coming back to Ireland, which is causing a recruitment crisis in the health service. A similar recruitment crisis has been caused in the education sector. My sister is deputy principal of a primary school and dreads any teacher going on sick leave. I have spoken at length to delegations from the INTO in my office. They most fear having to find a substitute teacher because none is available. When I asked where all the teachers have gone, I was told they have gone to Dubai, England, the United States and so on and they are not coming back. The unequal pay structure plays a huge part in that.

The failure to address that issue will cost the Exchequer in the long run in terms of services not being delivered, expensive overtime and, ultimately, the loss of the brightest and best graduates who are leaving and not coming back. That should give the Government cause for great concern. Unfortunately, the Bill will compound and continue the pay inequality for civil and public servants recruited since 2011, which is wrong. That UNITE and the three teachers' unions have voted against the deal should make the Government sit up, take a bit of notice and acknowledge this is a very serious and real concern. Working and doing the exact same job for 15% less than the person one works alongside is not only demoralising but fundamentally wrong. As I said, I am a trade unionist and have fought and campaigned for the right to equal pay for work of equal value. The two-tier pay structure is being continued while we are told the economy has picked up and we are all doing better, but that is not being felt by newly qualified teachers, NQTs, or recent graduates in the nursing profession.

Industrial action, in particular by the teaching profession, is a very real possibility. Putting into legislation matters that should be the subject of normal industrial relations procedures is quite an aggressive act and will have the desired effect. It will anger civil and public servants. It will send exactly the message the Taoiseach sought to send to such workers when he spoke of the possibility of strikes being outlawed. That is the type of message those workers are receiving. It is about a heavy hand all of the time rather than talking about issues and stamping down on concerns rather than recognising they need to be dealt with. That is not the right way to go. I share the concerns expressed by the teachers' unions in this regard, and the failure to acknowledge such concerns will lead us into further problems and further recruitment and retention crises.

That said, we acknowledge that the public service stability agreement, PSSA, has been accepted by the majority of trade unions, and that is important. We will, at an appropriate time, propose amendments to this legislation. As my colleague, Deputy Nolan, has outlined, we do not object to the Bill, but that is not to say we are happy about it; rather, we are committed to working with the teachers and nurses and those other workers in the civil and public service who are committed and working hard to reverse pay inequality. We will do all we can from these benches to assist them in that regard.

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