Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have experience of institutions that are independent of me issuing recommendations that then cause significant consequences that I have to deal with as well. On Deputy Wallace's point on pay, one of the challenges we face is that the Public Service Pay Commission did issue recommendations in regard to pay for which, in my appraisal at the time, the rest of the union movement would have understood the need. We could have implemented them in such a way that would have allowed us to avoid the vista of knock-on claims elsewhere. In fairness to Deputy Wallace, he is the only speaker in this debate who acknowledged what that risk is, what would be the challenges for the Government in respect of how we manage pay in this country and what that could mean for everything else.

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