Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity, brief as it is, to give our initial views and comments on the ongoing inequalities that exist in the public service. I do not want to revisit the reasons and the necessity for the FEMPI measures that were introduced in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Suffice to say, it was always intended that the dissipation with respect to the emergency measures would lead to the reduction and reversal of said measures, both in terms of public service pay and the universal social charge. Fine Gael has deviated from that approach. That is evident in the way it dealt with the issue of public service pay and its flip-flop regarding its commitment to removing the universal social charge. As my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, said some weeks ago, it was the biggest promise - worth €4 billion - ever made in the history of the State. That promise was made, loud and clear, by Fine Gael and the current Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, who would accuse others of being reckless and feckless in terms of the commitment to which they seek to adhere regarding the way in which they would disburse the funds that are available in order to address the many inequalities that exist. The political consequences of introducing such necessary measures were all too obvious for Fianna Fáil, as a political party, but we are thankful that subsequent Governments stuck to the programme, continued the heavy lifting and pursued the final third of the adjustment necessary to create a foundation for us to take advantage of an upturn, if and when it arrived.

This is not the first time we have spoken about the inequality that exists in the public service. We have spoken in particular about the inequality for new entrants since 2011. I and my party have put forward motions on the teaching profession and others to address that issue. However, the Government has been slow and lethargic in the way it has done so. It has come to the table late but, nonetheless, it is at the table with the prospect of resolution. The reason we are still there is two pronged. The first is the lethargic manner in which the Government dealt with the issue having failed to address it to date, and the second is that it is that cohort of the workforce in the public service who are most affected by the huge cost of living expenses that have been exacerbated in recent years. We can think of many young workers in that cohort who continue to pay up to 50% and more of their income on housing costs and who are crippled by the cost of both health and car insurance. Traffic congestion continues to be a problem in many part of the city and the country, and there is a deficit in public transport provision. Both those reasons - the Government's failure to address the issue initially and then not addressing the areas of health and housing sufficiently, which has created a further burden on that workforce - have created what the Minister of State alluded to when he spoke about the difficulties the Government faces in providing the relevant finances to address this pay issue. Pay becomes the focus of people's attention when they cannot meet the demands society places on them because of the failure of Government to address some of those issues.

We included a commitment on the Public Service Pay Commission and on addressing inequality for new entrants since 2011 in the confidence and supply arrangement that we entered into to facilitate the formation of a stable Government. Moreover, during the passage of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act, which as the Minister of State alluded to represents the unravelling of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation, we insisted on an amendment directing the Government to get a report from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service costing and evaluating the adjustments needed to address that issue for new entrants. Now, belatedly, the Government has begun the process of engaging with the relevant unions to deal with that very issue. We support that process. We expect the goodwill on both sides to help to find a solution. We believe that should be addressed and agreed in the near future, in plenty of time for negotiations on the budget.

As far as we can see, there are only some definite elements of the budget at this juncture. They are the €500 million towards the rainy day fund, the cost associated with the pension anomaly that was recognised last year, especially concerning home care credits, which is being dealt with and a first commitment on the issue of pay equality. The cost associated with it is €200 million. It is up to both parties to come to a sensible conclusion and agreement on that issue and we support that.

Pay inequality in the public service is quite evident across a wide range of areas. Again, having committed to the Public Service Pay Commission, we agree with its initial task of looking at difficulties in recruitment and retention in certain areas of pivotal importance, namely, the health service, consultants and the Air Corps. The Public Service Pay Commission is due to report to the Government in June, on foot of independent recommendations to address those issues. Again, Fianna Fáil earnestly asks the Government to engage with the relevant unions associated with those areas with a view to arriving at a successful conclusion and putting in place a pathway to address those issues.

As I said to the Minister for Finance last week, it is the understanding of one of the unions pertaining to that process that the public service pay agreement for the next three years, of which we are in the first year, is predicated on recommendations not only being submitted to the Government, but being acted on by it in the second year of that three-year agreement. That union, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, is convinced that this is provided for in the Act that I mentioned earlier. The union holds that it is provided for in clarification letters it subsequently received from the Department. The Minister is not on the same page, based on my communication and correspondence with him. That needs to be clarified as otherwise, the Government is facing the unravelling of the three-year deal.

To return to the issue of inequality for new entrants, I recently have heard commentators on the public airwaves saying that because of the CAO application process and the oversubscription to various roles including teaching, nursing, the Garda or the Defence Forces, there is nothing to fear where public sector pay is concerned. That is totally disingenuous to those who work in those areas or who wish to work in them. Many of those working in those areas and in the public service harboured an ambition to do so for a long time. Many young people today harbour that same ambition and their first priority is to fulfil that ambition. The level of pay that is associated with it might only be a secondary realisation. From their perspective, the failure of the Government to address social issues arising from their pay difficulties may also be a secondary realisation.

I am mindful of the effort that is being made at the front line of those services. We rightly appreciate, thank and laud their efforts at times of crisis, for example, during recent extreme weather events. However, that is nothing but hot air and is very disingenuous unless we can recognise the difficulty that is faced in the meantime. The three areas I mentioned are examples of the difficulties and the reasons efforts to resolve this issue must be made.

The health service has many obvious difficulties across a wide range of areas. People are living longer, there is an age demographic that will place greater strain on services and we have not provided adequately for that. In recent years we have seen centres of excellence or health provision. We have seen section 39 companies taking on a role that many would expect the State to fulfil, yet there is no recognition or coming together. There are age-old problems concerning pay but one cannot expect age-old resolutions to rectify them. That is just a small observation, rather than getting into it in any deep or meaningful way. Suffice to say that we expect the Public Service Pay Commission to make recommendations that we will be watching very carefully. Fianna Fáil is very hopeful that they will reflect the sentiments that have been expressed to us as public representatives by our constitutions who are involved in that sector to the effect that there must be a sea change in the Government's approach to the provision of public services, the expectations on them and the pressures on those who are delivering those services. I refer to pressures concerning where they live, how they travel to work, how they carry out their work and how they provide for their own families in a way that allows them to deliver the service we expect and hope to improve. We cannot simply expect those services and facilities to improve to the level we would be happy with without addressing many other issues that feed into that.

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