Lansdowne Road Agreement ‘absolutely’ still intact - Donohoe

The Lansdowne Road Agreement is “absolutely” still intact according to Minister for Public Expenditure Pascal Donohoe.

He said he was prepared to discuss “the process” with the public service unions, “but we have to be fair to everybody.”

The Minister added that it is in the national interest that the Lansdowne Road Agreement must remain intact.

“We have to be fair to the self employed, to the public service and to tax payers who want to access public services.”

He said that the government has already acknowledged two points – that collective agreement is the best way to deal with the public services wage bill and that the agreement has to be grounded in realism.

“In our life time there will be one million more people who will need an effective public service, we have to deal with that.”

When asked about the Labour Court recommendation in relation to the gardaí, he said “the Labour Court intervened to deal with exceptional circumstances. The Labour Court is an independent body – if we did not accept that recommendation you would have said ‘you’re undermining the court of arbitration.’

“I accept that the recommendation has consequences, that’s why I’m willing to engage.

“There needs to be a process to plan for a replacement for the Lansdowne Road Agreement. But we have a budget in place for 2017 and if I change one thing then I have to change everything.

‘Honouring the agreement’

Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar said it was important that one group did not benefit from a recovering economy disproportionately to any other.

Speaking before an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) conference on poverty and deprivation, Mr Varadkar said the Government remains committed to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

“We are honouring the agreement and we expect [the unions]to honour it as well,” he said.

“Obviously the Labour Court decision in relation to the garda dispute does have implications and we will explore those implications with the leaders of the different public sector trade unions.”

Mr Varadkar said it was important that all aspects of budgetary policy were addressed in the years ahead, including not just public sector pay but tax cuts, public services, pension and welfare payments and infrastructure.

“The more money that is made available for public sector pay increases...does mean less money for [other areas],” he said.

The Siptu Health Division Organiser Paul Bell says that there has been “a clear breach” of the Lansdowne Road Agreement following the Labour Court recommendations on the garda industrial dispute.

“If one group outside the agreement is getting preferential treatment then that is a clear breach of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.”

He said that the government had put itself in its current difficult position.

“The Labour Court made no reference to the Lansdowne Road Agreement, nor should it,” he told RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show.

“As far as we are concerned we want restoration of pay to be dealt with collectively. It’s not on for the government to feel that it is ok to treat others more favourably.

“The genie is out of the bottle – the government is pretending that it isn’t.”

‘Not acceptable’

Earlier on Wednesday INMO general secretary Liam Doran said public service unions would not accept groups outside the Lansdowne Road Agreement receiving money in January while they have to wait until September.

The current time frame for pay restoration to public service unions is not acceptable, he said.

“The government has to stop being coy, it has to recognise reality and it should come to the table very quickly, when it does so, we clearly know what we want.

"The unions have been very mature over the years and will be mature again, but there's absolutely no way that I can accept, or that any union in the public service can accept groups outside the Lansdowne Road Agreement receiving money three times greater in January than my members will receive next September," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

‘There is money available’

Meanwhile, the Unite trade union’s Regional Coordinating Officer Richie Browne says he does not accept that the government cannot afford public sector pay restoration.

“I don’t accept that it is not affordable. There is money available - it is a matter of political will and political choices.

“They are saying one thing for one group and something else for everybody else,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

Mr Browne said that his union is looking for an early renegotiation of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

“We believe in order for those talks to take place in the correct atmosphere the government can do things in advance of those talks: the first is to give a commitment for equal pay for equal work.

“ That’s a major part of the ASTI’s dispute - the very low rates for new entrants doing the same job as their colleagues.

“The other thing they could do is give a commitment over the Croke Park hours - public sector workers have to work additional hours for no extra pay and we believe if the government gives a commitment - how long that would take and over what duration, it could be a matter for negotiation.

“The Lansdowne Road agreement was to provide for partial restoration - we all know how much public servants lost and that has to be restored.”