Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Horkan raises an issue raised in the other House and in that debate, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, pointed out, and I am sure the Senator has followed the debate, that we are not trying to single out one group of people here. We want to have everybody covered by the agreement and the benefits laid out in the legislation. We do not want to single out one group. While I do not doubt the Senator's motives and ambition to make sure this is done properly, the Bill already provides for the restoration of all fixed allowances that were reduced under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009. The reductions were applied to allowances across the public service and include allowances paid to health sector grades, such as nurses and consultants, as well as allowances paid in other sectors such as to gardaí and teachers. The FEMPI reductions were not confined to nursing and midwifery allowances and professions only. As such, it would not be appropriate to consider a faster restoration of one group over another. We want to do this for everybody and for everybody to benefit from it. As I said to Senator Ruane, and as I know the House appreciates, we want to do it in an orderly way which we can afford.

I refer again to the point I made here last night and again today, that the oversight body of the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018 to 2020 has met and we hope to make progress on this. It will take time. Everybody knows our budgetary figures for 2019 and 2020. They are far better than they were in the past. The Minister is not giving and cannot give commitments because he does not have a crystal ball but there is a commitment by the Minister, Department and officials to engage positively in this. The trade union movement has been receptive to that. We have come with clean hands. We do not want to have this hanging around. It is on that basis that I ask the Senator if he would consider withdrawing the amendment.