Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 9, to delete lines 43 to 46, and in page 10, to delete lines 1 to 17.

This amendment is opposing section 6 of the Bill. I can understand the rationale behind the text in question, which allows the Minister to exempt a particular class of public servants from the provisions of section 2. One would like to think the Minister would, in the new year, exempt large numbers of public servants from these cuts - I spoke about those earning under €20,000 and €30,000. However, it is clearly not the intention of the Government to do that. The problem I have with this section is that it leaves the power in the Minister's hands to exempt a public servant or group of public servants - which could be the Taoiseach or Ministers or, alternatively, some of the lowest income earners - from the cuts. It is up to the Minister to decide what that group or class of public servants are.

The other problem with section 6 is that it allows the Minister to modify the operation of section 2, which is the schedule of cuts, to make deductions to remuneration in such a manner as the Minister sees fit. One would hope this was intended to allow the Minister to modify section 2 to lessen the impact on public sector workers. The problem with section 6 - this is why I oppose the entire section - is that to support this, thereby allowing the final decision to rest in the Minister's hands without recourse to the Seanad or Dáil, we must trust the Minister. However, this country does not trust the Government because of the decisions it has made. We have seen that time and again as the Government has chosen the wrong options on many issues. This Bill shows how wrong it is and why we should not trust the Minister on these matters.

It is fundamentally a question of trust. Can we trust the Minister to modify section 2 to lessen the impact when we know it can also work in reverse? The Minister could also modify section 2 to deepen the impact. He could also exempt high-earning public servants if he felt it was just and equitable. What the Minister thinks is just and equitable may differ considerably from what I and the Opposition parties consider just and equitable. For this reason it is wrong to vest these powers in the Minister. While I understand it was probably put in the Bill to lessen the impact, it could also work in reverse, and we must trust the Minister to do the right thing. If we are to make any changes, whether to deepen or lessen the impact, it should come back before the Houses of the Oireachtas so it is properly discussed. Any exemptions or deepening of the impact should be debated in a democratic forum.