Results 25,601-25,620 of 32,924 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Other Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Now, through the Lansdowne Road agreement, we will honour the agreement we have with them. As I said, we began discussions with representatives of teachers yesterday.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I did answer Deputy Boyd Barrett’s question. I laid out very clearly the reasons why I believe the maintenance of the legislation is needed.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I outlined the reasons for that very clearly and I am sure I will be debating them with the Deputy later on and I believe also on Friday. The full cost of repealing all the FEMPI measures is €2.2 billion. The challenge for me is that if I consider the issues the Deputy raises regularly with me - the need for housing, for more investment in our health services, bringing more people...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: -----while meeting all of the needs that the Deputy raises regularly with me because he is right to raise those issues.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I have outlined the rationale for this. I have always made very clear my appreciation for the huge contribution the public service has made to our country at a time of great difficulty but amidst the anger the Deputy has articulated let us also acknowledge two other points about what is happening in our public services, first, over the past two years we have over 18,000 more public servants,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: -----which are needed and which have been accepted by the majority of unions in our State.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Not only do we have a plan, but we have a plan that has been accepted by 280,000 public servants in 23 unions. The reality is that if I was adopting a different approach and looking to dismantle the Lansdowne Road agreement, Deputy Cullinane would be in the House criticising me for doing that and for not keeping faith with the 280,000 people in those unions who are part of the agreement. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: We have always been very clear that the benefits of an agreement have to accrue to those who are part of the agreement. If I was to use a different approach, the Deputy would again be criticising me for doing it. I will now turn to the position in relation to new entrants who joined the public service during the crisis. I have already indicated to Deputy Cullinane that my Department has...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course, the cost of that will be subject to our Estimates process but most obviously will be subject to the nature of the agreement.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I will address the Deputy's first question. This builds on a commitment I gave in the earlier Dáil session around dealing with issues for new entrants. I may have been responding to questions to Deputy Calleary on this when I indicated to him that the Lansdowne Road agreement creates the processes in which matters of concern to those inside the agreement can be dealt. That is what we...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: -----to look at how issues around the GRA, the Department of Justice and Equality and the Government can be dealt with. The Deputy's final question was about terms, conditions and allowances of other new entrants in the civil and public service. We will look at such matters and engage with unions all the time inside the Lansdowne Road agreement on issues of concern to them.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Alas, I am not a master of anything at all. I answer the questions which the Deputy puts to me. However, when I answered the questions, I pointed out that not only is there a plan, but the plan has been voted on by the majority of unions. These are points of truth of which the Deputy takes no cognisance, apart from the fact that if I was outlining any other course of action the Deputy...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: ------a plan that has been accepted by the majority of unions.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Lansdowne Road Agreement (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy referred to the need for urgency. I acknowledge that this is a matter that Deputy Calleary has raised with me on new entrants in to the public service and especially teachers. That has informed the approach taken by me and the Department of Education and Skills on this matter. With regard to the unwinding of FEMPI, it should be put into context. I am taking a group of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I wish to correct a point I had made to Deputy Calleary. I should have said "when the agreement is due to expire" as opposed to "when the current agreement has expired". The FEMPI measures were enacted by the Oireachtas and remain in place until their repeal. Under section 12 of the FEMPI Act 2013, I am obliged to review and report to the Houses of the Oireachtas on the operation,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: UK Referendum on EU Membership (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I think I have 35 seconds left.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: UK Referendum on EU Membership (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Would you allow me to answer the second question the Deputy put to me, please?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: UK Referendum on EU Membership (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I would make the point that it is not my fault that the clock started late. I am doing the Deputy the courtesy of trying to answer the questions he put to me.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: UK Referendum on EU Membership (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: To go back to the earlier question the Deputy put to me, the effect will become clearer in the run-up to budget 2017. The summer economic statement outlined that the cause of any change in national income would be the change in our trading relationship with sterling and having a greater understanding of what the relationship would be between the UK and the Single Market in particular. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: UK Referendum on EU Membership (6 Jul 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: -----is our plans in the context of how they respond to what has happened in the UK. Capital investment to increase productivity and the growth potential of the economy is how we need to respond, and I will be taking specific account of the Border counties.