David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House to debate legislation which should not be before us at all. He has a bit of a neck to present the Bill as anything other than threatening legislation whose intention is to divide and conquer the trade unions and threaten public sector workers into accepting a deal that imposes cuts to hard-fought gains made by staff over many years. The vast majority of public sector workers see this threatening legislation as the use of strong-arm tactics by the Government to force through pay cuts and also changes to the entitlements of people who work in the public sector generally - not just those at the top, but also those on low and middle incomes.

We do not support the notion that taking €1 billion out of the public sector is good for the people who work in the public sector, good for the provision of public services or good for the domestic economy. It is bad for all three, because public sector workers, as the Minister knows, have taken significant pay cuts over the past five years. When he was sitting in opposition, the Minister railed against the policies of Fianna Fáil at the time. Now, in government, he is implementing the very same policies. When the Labour Party was in opposition I remember a very different Deputy Gilmore, now the Tánaiste, who used to take to his feet and rail against what was happening with regard to the banks and what Fianna Fáil was doing to working people in the public and private sectors. Those same individuals see nothing different in what they did and what the Government is now doing. The Minister is simply implementing troika policies and Fianna Fáil policies that were agreed as part of the national development plan.

The Minister comes to the House and does not even look at or engage with the people who speak. He looks down at his notes and elsewhere.