Tom Shehan (Fine Gael)

I am sceptical about the Croke Park agreement. Senator Byrne asked for alternatives and said that people of my opinion were creating a crisis mode. I have a serious problem with the scenario of jobs for life. I have seen people in the public sector who are not up to the job. They may suffer from burn-out or just not be capable of carrying out a job out of work, yet it is impossible to get rid of them. It does not lie well with me. In a recent speech, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, said: "The Government reaffirms its commitment under the Croke Park agreement on pay rates and job security for serving public servants." Therefore job security will not be up for question.

Recently, I spoke to a senior manager in the public sector who said that if he was allowed to remove the people he wanted to remove from his staff, he could reduce numbers by 20% and increase productivity. That is a very strong and telling statement.

Public sector payroll savings this year will be up to €400 million and will reach €3.5 billion by 2015, which is approximately 20%. The Croke Park agreement is not for short-term gain, however, and as has been stated many times we are in receivership. I do not know of any receiver or liquidator who gives five-year plans for receivership. This year, the Croke Park agreement will cost €600 million in lump sum payments and up to €1 billion with pensions, to achieve staff reductions by the end of this month. While Croke Park is a long-term plan, the country is in crisis now. If over 65,000 public sector workers took a 5% pay reduction it would be immediate and would achieve what needs to be done much more quickly. I accept that there would be pain but I have not mentioned increments. We must wake up and smell the coffee in respect of how we are seen abroad. In this country, members of the public sector get half an hour on Friday to cash a cheque yet they are paid by electronic funds transfer. Let us get a grip. I am led to believe that was not up for renegotiation in the Croke Park agreement.