Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The truth of the matter is that the issue of core pay was excluded from the review and it is not the independent review of the commission. The Public Service Pay Commission has said that its hands were tied behind its back because the terms of reference precluded it from looking at the issue of core pay. The Minister is aware that there is any amount of wriggle room available in these agreements. The Government found it for the nurses - rightly so - and found it for the Garda when it was put under pressure. Because the Government knows the Defence Forces cannot strike, its members are to be treated differently and they are not to have the increase in their actual pay to which everyone in this House and everybody in the trade union movement would agree they are entitled. I ask the Minister to not hide behind the review of the pay commission when it was the Government that preset the terms and the outcome by not allowing the commission to look at the issue of core pay. Will the Government now acknowledge that what it is offering will not be adequate to meet the legitimate demands of our Defence Forces' men and women? Will it agree to have a speedy review of core pay now and not just for a subset of the Army, who are the 2,500 specialists, but for all 8,500 men and women who serve our nation with such distinction?

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