David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, my party welcomes the fact that at long last, moves are being made to address this issue. Accompanying the Minister of State today I can see some of the officials who I met several years ago to discuss this matter. One of the questions we were examining at the time was exactly how much it would cost to unravel all of this and deal with the issue of new entrants post 2011. Finally we have a cost but we do not yet have a strategy. We certainly do not have an agreement, and that needs to be put in place.

I think it is important for us to put what happened to those new entrants into a wider context to truly appreciate why they see this as a real grievance. The Minister of State's opening statement quite rightly outlined the extent of the cuts from 2008 to 2014. Before Deputy Cowen leaves the Chamber, I note that his party was also partly responsible for the cuts and in fact was the architect of many of them. There was the universal social charge, which was a new tax on public sector workers and all workers. The public service pension levy was then introduced, which was solely for public sector workers. There were pay cuts outside of those that were taken by new entrants, cuts that were generally imposed from 2008 up to 2011. Changes to overtime and increments freezes were also put in place.

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The totality of the changes that were made had a huge impact on public sector workers. Between 2008 and 2014, on average a public sector worker lost approximately 14%. On top of all this, new entrants had a further cut in their pay of 10%. This was not simply on the starting grade. If it was only the starting grade it would have been an inequality at that point, but all of the increment grades and rates, right up to retirement and the top rate, were all cut. Over the lifetime of working in the service they were to lose, and lose substantially.

Obviously there have been changes, and because of political pressure and because the Government had to do something because of pressure from trade unions there was a merging of the increment scales. There was a reduction in the pension levy for those who were new entrants to alleviate a lot of the damage done, but there is still an injustice and legacy issues, which will cost €209 million. My quarrel with the Government when the last pay talks were ongoing was why this issue was not dealt with. Why was this issue left on the long finger? I could not understand it when we consider that at the heart of almost all of the industrial disputes we have seen over the course of recent years in the public sector, from gardaí to teachers to nurses, the issue of equal pay for equal work was one of the core issues, but it was not dealt with. These workers were effectively left behind.

I remember having discussions such as this with previous Ministers, who sat there and told me it was not an issue and that could be dealt with because it would cost too much money. There was no idea how much it would cost. I was told it was complicated and it could not be done. Lo and behold, suddenly the figure of €209 million appeared, it could be done and a process is being put in place to do it. This is where we have come from.

We have to recognise that those public sector workers who are new entrants have borne all of the other cuts and all of the other increases in taxation as well as this separate cut in pay that applied solely to new entrants in the public sector. It was a deliberate intentional strategy by the Government at the time to target young people coming into the public sector. It is not without its consequences. Even today, we know we have challenges recruiting nurses. We have challenges recruiting front-line staff to our healthcare sector. It is the same with teaching. We have people with qualifications who are leaving the country because of that injustice. They feel if that is how the State will treat them they will go elsewhere. We are now paying a price for the very poorly thought out illogical strategy that was put in place back then. We really need to send a very clear signal to those workers that it will be dealt with.

Yes, some remedial action has been taken and I welcome this. I hope this issue will be dealt with in its totality over the course of the next number of years through agreement. I want this to happen. However, what those workers have lost during the period from 2011 until now is potentially lost to them forever, and this has implications for their pensions. This was a real grievance and a real sore, and I do not believe the Government truly understood the grievance those public sector workers felt. We saw it manifested in industrial disputes. It is the case, perhaps, of too little too late in some respects. The Government was warned against this and advised it should take priority in pay talks but it ignored all of that advice. We suffered because of industrial relations issues and disputes. Those workers continue to suffer and only now is the Government getting around to doing something about it. I want it done as quickly as possible so we have justice for those public sector workers who came into the system in 2011 and we have equal pay for equal work in the public service.

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