Cyprian Brady (Fianna Fail)

The pragmatic decision taken in the year 2000 to progress the agreement, along with the excellent work of the benchmarking board, have resulted in a strong framework within which the public services can and will improve to a level which is appropriate to a modern progressive State.

This Government is committed to following through on the commitments given by all parties to the agreement and to ensuring they are delivered on. For many years we have listened to complaints about the state of our public service. Some 20% of our workforce, the 235,000 people in the public service, have through their representative bodies signed up to this agreement and they fully realise that with the agreement come expectations. Under a succession of national agreements, including PPF and Sustaining Progress and, as was pointed out earlier, one of the agreements negotiated by Fine Gael, the link between public service pay awards and the delivery of improvements and modernisation programmes has been a key element in negotiations. All sides accept that in order to justify any awards, change is inevitable.

An even more important element of any agreement must be the verification process. This must be rigorous and transparent. The method of quality control that this will provide will benefit all sides – the consumer, the taxpayer, the Government and indeed the service providers, in that they will not have to constantly try to justify themselves or the value of their work.

The thrust of the Fine Gael motion baffles me. We listen almost daily to moans about the lack of services and investment yet Fine Gael wants to undermine the very people who provide us with these services. It says something about the flawed logic that exists in Fine Gael that the party does not see the public service as worth investing in.