Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and compliment the Minister, for whom I have had a long-standing admiration, on the various roles he has played in government over a distinguished career. However, I could not help but reflect that because he took on, in departmental terms, somewhat of a poisoned chalice in that he was the man who had to hold the line that perhaps not all the plaudits are going his way and that his colleague, in the Department of Finance, has been getting a more positive press. Despite the inevitable praise the Minister would heap on the Government for steadying the ship, to which he contributed much, it also followed the four-year plan that had been initiated by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government in the dying days of its administration. The Government is to be commended for having had the courage to do that against very powerful vested interests, particularly in the public sector.

The Minister has steered a very steady ship in that regard in his relationship with the public sector unions, although it is sad to reflect that there are a number of public service unions who have not accepted the Haddington Road agreement, such as the major teaching unions. The nurses are balloting to go on strike and there has been a reduction in morale within the public service in general, particularly in the health service where the much-lauded initiative, which I would have approved, and supported, to encourage more nurses to come back to shore up front-line services, for some reason has yielded only 77 nurses as against a target of some 400 plus. I wonder why that is because all of us would have seen the television programmes, in the initial period of this Government, of an entire class of nursing graduates from Galway, all of whom emigrated to the one hospital in London. One wonders why, given the improvements the Minister has outlined in terms of pay and conditions, they are not coming back. Perhaps they are hoping to gain more experience abroad before coming back. One hopes they will come back.

Overall, Fianna Fáil welcomed the conclusion of the public sector pay talks. The proposals on pay levels and changes to the pension levy are broadly in line with the position paper on public sector pay we published on 19 May 2015. At that time we said the focus should be on low to middle-income earners and that any pay improvements should include a combination of a flat rate increase and a percentage increase.

A key element of our position paper is to ensure that improvements in take home pay of public servants are in line with general wage improvements in the economy. Both the private and the public sector should feel the benefit of improved living standards. We have already called for the minimum wage to be increased to €9.20 per hour, slightly ahead of the actual increase granted of €9.15 which is welcome. This translates to approximately €1,000 per annum. The Minister will agree that the public and private sector must move in line together and neither must run ahead or lag behind the other. I think he has indicated that in his own contribution.

Newly-recruited public servants are at a disadvantage relative to staff recruited before 2011. This cannot be justified and may lead to long-term difficulties for the public service. We believe that equality of treatment for public servants should be fully restored. It is extremely disappointing that this was not addressed in the proposals. The issue of part-time workers, many of whom are female, must be satisfactorily dealt with also. There was no mention of these important issues in the legislation. Separately, the Government must address the restoration of front-line services, especially in the areas of health, education and security. This will be the real test of the Government's commitment to improving public services for all in our community.

In the context of the newly-recruited public servants I cannot help but raise an issue which was raised at the time. Much as one welcomed and continues to welcome the increase in Garda recruitment, in light of the murders in County Louth of Tony Golden and Adrian Donohoe, and of the continuing threat now to our national security, which hopefully is not real or immediate, like the scouts one has to be prepared. I know the Government is prepared and that the defence services and the Garda are also prepared in that regard. I find it hard to understand that young trainee gardaí on leaving Templemore, following their training, and being put on the front line of defending all of us at community level should receive only €23,000 per year. That is not fair. The Minister may have a different view but that was the figure that appeared in the media at the time - it was of the order of €23,000 to €24,000 when they go into Templemore. Maybe the pay element improves on leaving Templemore but on the face of it, given that we put so much trust and faith, rightly so, in the Garda Síochána and given the community empathy for the force, one would have thought their value was greater than €23.500 to put their lives at risk.

Public servants and people in the private sector have made huge sacrifices, as the Minister has said, in the past seven years since the economic crisis began in 2008. The recovery which is welcome should be shared with all in the country.We would also argue that any party or grouping promising full restoration of pay cuts without stating how they would be paid for is simply engaged in auction politics and that is not directed at the Minister or his party or the parties in government. Fianna Fáil welcomes the conclusion of the public service pay talks. The proposals on pay levels and changes in the pension levy are broadly in line with the position paper that Fianna Fáil published earlier. We believe there should be a focus on low and middle income earners as the economy expands, and I think the Minister referred to this. A civil service clerical officer on a salary of €700 per week suffered a reduction of €100 per week in net take-home pay as a result of the successive rounds of pay cuts and tax increases. This represents a significant cut in living standards and has put many families under severe pressure in meeting household bills, such as mortgages and child care.

It is important also that public sector pensions are sustainable into the future. This is the time bomb that has been ticking for the past 20 years. The pension fund was raided because of the economic downturn and one wonders whether this Government or future administrations have any plans, along the lines of the McCreevy proposals, to set aside money as the economy expands and improves in order to meet the ticking bomb of public service pensions or whether the Government is engaging in any sort of way to encourage more people to take out private pensions. Looking at the record of this Government in the area of private pensions, it certainly does not make it an attractive option, considering the high rate of penal tax on those who have pensions and also the ongoing pension levy which, thankfully, is going to come to an end this year. It is certainly an area the Government needs to focus on and I have no doubt the Minister and his officials are fully aware that this time bomb is continuing to tick to a point where a future administration may find itself running out of money with a large public service bill. I appreciate I am running out of time and there are many other things I could say in this regard, although I may have an opportunity later.

An Irish Timesarticle from 3 June stated that the Government concluded a series of side deals with trade unions as part of the process that led to the Lansdowne Road agreement and that these side deals, technically known as chairman's notes, deal with issues raised by trade unions across the Civil Service, health sector, local government and education areas among others. According to the article, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform refused to release any details of the side agreements, although some have been highlighted by unions to their members. Surely the Minister, Deputy Howlin, would be in favour of absolute transparency. If there is nothing to hide, why not reveal it? Overall, Fianna Fáil supports this legislation and wishes the Minister well.