Derek McDowell (Labour)

The Labour Party does not agree with the Fine Gael motion and we will support the Government amendment. I always come over a little funny when I utter those words and I take some consolation from the fact that I know it has a similarly disconcerting effect on the Minister. I suspect that whenever we get up to endorse what he has done, he knows he must have done something wrong along the way.

In fairness to Fine Gael, it has touched a few nerves and raised important issues which have to be dealt with, specifically in relation to the delivery of public services and to modernisation and flexibility within the public service. This is a hugely important issue, which is becoming all the more important as we spend more money while looking back over the past three or four years when a huge amount of money was wasted in the public sector. I will return to that topic which, although not germane to the issue of benchmarking, is important.

We must remember, as the Minister and others pointed out, from where the benchmarking process came. It arose out of an era of serious industrial unrest within the public sector. Virtually all the major bodies within the public sector had issues in the late 1990s. For example, teachers had been on strike, or had taken industrial action, gardaí had a bout of flu and nurses had been on a strike which, let us remember, had a great deal of public support on the basis that their pay was traditionally low and the lack of promotional opportunities in the grade. There were huge problems in the public sector which had to be addressed. At the time, on behalf of the Labour Party, the then leader Deputy Ruairí Quinn and I endorsed the process then undertaken, which became known as benchmarking.

As the Minister pointed out, the relativity system was absurd, incoherent and bedevilled the service. For many years, when there was not a large amount of money around, it did not make a huge amount of difference, although it was frustrating for Ministers and did not make a great deal of sense. By the late 1990s, when we were trying to bring about improvements and incentivise particular people and grades in the sector, it simply could not be made to work any more. It was hugely important that we moved away from a system which tried to compare and link grades which had nothing in common whatsoever and which were doing entirely different jobs, requiring an entirely different form of expertise. I agree with the Minister that if we have succeeded in doing that and nothing else, it is a significant achievement.