Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader to arrange for an urgent debate on public service reform. I was taken aback recently by the tone and content of some of the public utterances from union leaders. It was my understanding from the benchmarking process which began many years ago that, to address the gulf that supposedly existed between private and public sector pay levels, the unions would row in behind a programme of modernisation and reform across the whole public sector. Late last week, however, one got an indication of how badly skewed and unbalanced the relationship had become between the Government and the unions when union leaders effectively told elected representatives to "butt out" of the negotiations, and that we had no role to play in offering any opinions or comment on those talks.

Over the weekend there was another indication of how badly skewed and unbalanced that process had become when the unions began to say they had a comprehensive and worthwhile package of reforms on the table, but that it was not accepted by the Government. That package of modernisation and reform was the very same one we agreed many years ago as part of the benchmarking process. It galls me to think that the unions somehow consider that this package is now in their gift to give to the Irish people, or not as the case may be. That is why we urgently need a debate in this House on that matter. It is not in the gift of the unions to decide whether they want to provide taxpayers with the public service they deserve. It is an absolute entitlement and right of every single taxpayer to have that reform now, not later.