Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to see the Minister again. I believe we had a good exchange yesterday. It was refreshing too the way the Minister handled the exchange yesterday. He was very direct in his speech. I thought that was very candid and decent of him. He made it clear that the buck stops with him on this issue. That is important in terms of clarity. He answered an important question for me and I appreciate that as well. I asked him within the envelope of funding for the next three years, is there scope to address this issue for secretarial assistants? He gave a very direct answer. He said "Yes". He said more than that. He actually outlined savings of €50 million over the past three years. That is really encouraging. The fact that he put it on the record here is very encouraging. I have no doubt my colleagues in SIPTU will have taken careful note of that in terms of the negotiation process going forward. I want to say that because to be frank, we do not often have positive exchanges. This was a very positive exchange and the fact the Minister was direct in his answers is welcome and meaningful. I want to be very fair to him in that regard.

My own experience is that I am now on my fifth secretarial assistant. Two of my secretarial assistants have been promoted and are now parliamentary assistants and doing really well. Two more had to leave because they just could not afford to stay in the job. They have moved on to better careers literally doubling their salary overnight. These two really bright young men are a huge loss to this organisation but they just could not afford to live in Dublin. They could not see any prospects. I believe the Minister mentioned the insecurity of the job yesterday as well, which is another massive issue.

The secretarial assistant I have now is absolutely excellent; my fifth one. I could not base him in Dublin because he could not afford to live here. He was actually based in Limerick but the reality is that he had to give up his house in Limerick and has now moved back in with his parents at the age of 25 because the salary that is paid is a pittance. It is an embarrassment. It is a source of extreme embarrassment. This is a man in his mid-20s earning a salary on which he cannot even have any prospect of renting his own home never mind any possibility of saving or planning to buy in the future. I know I am not saying anything that everyone here does not know already. I am just trying to emphasise how appallingly badly these people have been treated for an awfully long time.

This process of trying to address the appalling rate of pay and terms and conditions has been ongoing for three and a half years. I am being very careful here, as it was not the Minister, but over those three and a half years his Department was the key block in terms of progress. We know this and I know this personally from conversations with my colleagues in my union. The Oireachtas commission had no means of negotiation. It was told very clearly that it was extremely limited in what it could offer. And we know what that offer was; it came earlier this year. It was 3%, which is miserable. It is derisory and appalling. Therefore, that has to change with the Minister's Department. I want to take his words in good faith because he gave very clear signals here and in the Dáil last week that it will change. I welcome that but I want to be absolutely sure that change is communicated incredibly effectively to the Minister's colleagues in the Department. I want to be frank. If they come in and double the offer, it is still rubbish. Let us be absolutely clear about that. Doubling the offer is not going to fix this because the offer is too derisory. The only thing that will fix this is regrading the secretarial assistant grade and getting rid of this appalling title. We have all agreed across the House that the title has no relevance. I can confirm it in a particular way because the colleague I have now was a parliamentary assistant for our party the last time and now he is a secretarial assistant, and he is telling me the work is no different. In fact, it is harder because there is only one of him. He is doing exactly the same work for half the salary. Therefore, let us be clear. Getting the Minister's Department officials to take that 3% and say they are going to make an exception and make it 6% is not going to fix this. What will fix this is regrading the position. All of us here across the Seanad know that is what needs to happen. It needs to reflect the actual jobs that they do. That is the step change we need. That is why this particular recommendation is important because it gives us some degree of oversight at the end of this process. We do not know what is going to happen at the end of January. We have really positive signals from the Minister and again, I recognise that and wish to put it on the record. We do not know what will happen in those negotiations, however. This recommendation will give us a means of seeing exactly what happened. We will see a report in terms of exactly what the Minister and his Department did. That is why it is important.

My final point is we must fix this. We cannot allow this to drag on any more. I cannot begin to describe the frustration of all of the secretarial assistants I have spoken to that they have been sitting for three and a half years being ignored and to be frank, and I am not referring to the Minister personally, being treated with contempt by the Department, which has given no mandate to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to actually negotiate the changes that we need. I am optimistic that will change but I urge the Minister to accept this recommendation because otherwise we just have to hope that we do not go back to the situation that has prevailed for the last three and a half years. I mean that with all goodwill. Let us try, therefore, to ensure the follow-through is there to ensure the change that we all want is delivered for these people.