Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is proposed that on Sunday, cuts will be applied to the pay and conditions of staff in Bus Éireann. As the Leader is aware, SIPTU has already balloted 900 members for industrial action in this regard and it now seems quite likely this will proceed. This side of the House accepts savings need to be made, and this is a culmination of 11 long months of deliberations between all of the parties, which involved the Labour Relations Commission.

It seems that with the approval of the Minister, the company will proceed from 12 May with cuts of €9 million to pay and conditions for people in Bus Éireann whose salaries are merely €33,000 per year. As I am sure the Leader will appreciate, the proposed strike action would occur at a critical time for the students and pupils who are approaching an examination period. Some of them will have spent many years preparing for their examinations and most will have done so over the past year. Industrial action will cause them an unacceptable level of disruption. I will not table an amendment to the Order of Business on particular issue. Instead, I ask the Leader to raise the matter today with the Minister and to ask him to get directly involved in negotiations over the weekend in order to secure a solution that will avert industrial action. The action would affect approximately 114,000 students over the coming weeks.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business and invite the Minister for Education and Skills to the House to outline his intended cuts to child benefit following an earlier cut to the payment dressed up as an additional preschool year for families. Yesterday, I listened to a media report in which he stated that he wished to open the debate on the matter. From the reaction to his announcement and if he gives it more thought, then I am sure he will conclude today that the debate should be firmly closed. The modest amounts of money paid to families has been used to clothe and feed children and provide school books and very important necessities. The payment is not a luxury and is not used for other reasons. To divert the vital resource to other areas would be short sighted. No-one is better placed than the mothers of Ireland to determine where to spend money that is necessary for them. If it were available for additional preschool then I am sure that they would do it. Perhaps if this was 2005, 2006 or 2007 and we were not in a recession then implementing such an initiative would be possible. I would like the Minister to come to the House to hear a debate and listen to the Members of the House who have been in contact with a number of mothers over the past 24 hours and listened to their concerns about the proposed cut that would be unjust and unfounded.