Dáil debates

Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

2:15 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----to do that, with the HSE and others. The Government is also open to the possibility of a Labour Court intervention. Of course we have had consultations with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and others about the possibility of an intervention. However, everyone feels that an intervention can only happen at the right time, when there is adequate space and adequate agreement so that we can proceed into a process. As I have said before, the parameters that have to be agreed are twofold. First, any agreement we reach has to be affordable for the taxpayer. We are not in a position to engage in borrowing to fund pay increases, and it would not be responsible to do so, particularly at this time. Second, any agreement we make, especially anything concerning pay, must be done under the existing Public Service Stability Agreement, with the involvement of ICTU. It would not be fair to 300,000 other public servants, with whom we have a pay deal and who are not on strike, if we gave a special deal to one group and then say to others that we cannot do the same for them. That would not be fair.

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