Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will not oppose the Order of Business as it is important that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, is in today. We do not like having a shorter time for people to speak but it is what it is.

I ask the Leader to inquire of the Minister for Public Expenditure, Deputy Howlin, and the Taoiseach the full detail of the Croke Park deal. I know the final document has not yet been made available. One must welcome the indication that there will not be compulsory redundancies, although this is against a backdrop where we have already lost 30,000 people. We should not forget that either, as this has, regrettably, had an impact on front-line services in many instances.

Last night, the Minister of State at the Department confirmed on "Prime Time" that the deal would remove the anomaly for new entrant teachers in terms of a different salary scale for doing the same work. He also implied that because the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation did not stay in the talks, the same concession was not being made available to newly qualified nurses. According to the Irish National Teachers Organisation website, new teacher entrants will begin a process of equalisation. How is this fair and how can the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, say we can do this for teachers but not for nurses? Is it the case that all people are equal - as we have said here many times - but some are more equal than others?

The Minister of State implied a deal would have been done if the nurses had stayed with the talks. Is that true? If it is true, it is a shocking revelation. If we are prepared to acknowledge that a proposal is unfair and is discriminatory, how can it be alleviated with the spin over the past couple of days? The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, asked people to swallow hard as this is the best deal that could be done and it is the last time the Government will go to the cupboard, however bare it is. How can this be said to nurses who will do 100% of the work with 80% of the pay?