Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the industrial relations chaos which appears to be consuming the Government. The performance of the Ministers in question, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, has been such that they must be called to this Chamber. It is a little ironic that the Leader is a former ASTI shop steward. He must feel as baffled I am at the recent steps taken by the Minister for Education and Skills, in particular, his foolish decision to cease payments for supervision and substitution duties, which poured oil on extremely hot waters.

Public servants across a range of key positions, including gardaí, teachers and nurses, are up in arms about the Government. As I reminded the Minister last week, the starting salary for a garda is €23,500. Is anyone in this Chamber prepared to stand over such a poor starting salary? How has it been beyond the competence of the Minister for Justice and Equality to address this issue in the months she has had to do so?The public service workers to whom I refer are outraged.

I wonder if there is something in the Fine Gael gene that just means it is not able to negotiate with trade unionists. It is something the party needs to fix as a matter or urgency now because we are facing into chaos. Parents are very worried and people in rural communities are also very worried about crime. This Government needs to take action and all we have seen so far are media sound bites. This is worse than poor behaviour, it is incompetent. I ask the Leader to arrange urgently for both Ministers to come to the House to account for how they have landed themselves in this huge mess.