Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

This issue is about fairness and not about public versus private sector workers, as has been stated by Senators McCarthy, Norris and O'Reilly. It is about whether people are paying their fair share and the workers outside Leinster House are representative of the least well-off sectors of our society. It is vital that we take them along with us but we will not do so in the current strife unless they can see an element of transparency and fairness in what everybody is being asked to pay. Pitting public service and private sector workers against each other is not on. We are all aware of job losses and we regret every job loss because of the impact that has on communities. This is all about fairness and marching ahead together to better times.

I compliment Senator Mary White on her suggestion to ensure Departments pay on time. I have a related concern, which I would like the Leader to address. Companies, unfortunately, have had to make redundancy payments. The Government says it will pay its contribution to such payments within eight weeks but officials are miles behind because they are snowed under with requests for tax relief on redundancy claims. This, in turn, makes companies less sure of their finances and more people are being made redundant because of cash flow issues. It is important not only to ensure the Government pays on time for the work done by private sector companies, but also that requests for tax relief on redundancy payments are processed as quickly as possible. Will the Leader bring that to the attention of the Minister for Finance?