Seanad debates

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

2:30 pm

Photo of Paschal MooneyPaschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Sean D. Barrett in welcoming Mr. George Hamilton. He and I were colleagues as far back as the Moscow Olympic Games and the trajectory of his career has been much higher than mine. It could not have happened to a nicer person. I will continue the theme initiated by my colleague, the leader of the Fianna Fáil group, Senator Darragh O'Brien, in the context of Garda pay. It is somewhat extraordinary that, on one hand, the Labour Party speaks about inequality and unfairness in society and states that it is part of its philosophy to address it while , on the other hand, in the past week alone it has been statistically proven that young graduates are leaving this country in droves. These include young people involved in nursing and teaching who do not receive or enjoy proper pay or conditions. Gardaí putting themselves in the line of fire are being treated abysmally in terms of pay and conditions. It is rather interesting to hear the spin being put on the fact that recruitment has restarted because the reality in this regard shows a net reduction in numbers as a result of retirements, career breaks, etc. The Garda force is currently over 200 short of 12,000, which is way below the figure that we in Fianna Fáil have proposed if we are returned to Government. We favour a restoration of the force's strength to 14,000. Such a move is necessary and anybody living in rural Ireland in particular will know that more gardaí are required on the ground.

There is a very well-educated cohort in society that wants to stay, work and live in Ireland. These people have graduated as nurses and were told there was a nursing shortage but the Government has failed abysmally to attract back nurses under a scheme proposed last year. One figure indicates that fewer than 50 people have taken it up. Why is this? It is because they are not receiving or enjoying the proper pay and conditions commensurate with what they have learned. Not only that, it is a competitive environment and they are being attracted elsewhere. It is extraordinary that a couple of years ago we had teachers who could not get jobs but now we have a teacher shortage that will, according to the information publicly available, get worse. This is despite the Government's indication that it will provide a significant number of extra places next September. There will be no teachers around at that stage because they will be in Dubai where they can get more pay than they do here and it will be tax free.

I call on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, to come before the House to debate the position with regard to this group of people and what the Government, in its dying days, is planning to do in order to give some meaning to the question of how to treat people in society who have gone through the educational system, who have a reasonable expectation of having jobs in their own country but who find they cannot do so because they will not receive sufficient pay and the conditions under which they are asked to operate are totally unacceptable. I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business to call the Minister, Deputy Howlin, before the House.

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