Garda pay deal could result in less investment, says Varadkar

The Garda pay deal proposed by the Labour Court could result in fewer new recruits, fewer new Garda cars and less investment in IT for the force, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has warned.

He said the Labour Court’s recommendation, which he expects the Cabinet to accept at its meeting on Tuesday, would impact on services.

“If you’re going to spend more on public service pay there is less money for public services,” he said.

The Minister also said he did not anticipate his department being asked to contribute to the Garda deal.

He made sure the Social Welfare Bill was published ahead of the Labour Court recommendation to ensure social welfare payment increases would not be delayed, he said on RTÉ's Claire Byrne Live show.

Mr Varadkar said the bulk of the €40 million required would have to come from the justice budget. “That’s the reality of these things,” he said.

“One of the things I made sure happened was that the Social Welfare Bill was published last week, before the Labour Court made its recommendation,” he said.

The social welfare and pension increases are due on March 10th next year. “The obvious thing to do if you’re an accountant is to say put that back until May and that creates some money for the gardaí but that’s not something I can accept and I don’t anticipate even being asked,” he said.

“Extra pay for gardaí comes out of the justice vote and that means less scope for more gardaí, less scope for new Garda cars, less scope for investment IT and the same thing applies in education.

“If more money goes to the salary of teachers that means it’s harder to reduce class sizes, it’s harder to increase funding for schools.”

Surprise

Mr Varadkar expressed surprise about the scope of the Labour Court recommendation. He said the court's decision "went so far beyond what the Workplace Relations Commission had brokered".

The Dublin West TD said “we’re heading into a situation where those who shout the loudest and those who are able to go on strike and impose hardship on other people are going to be first in the queue and I don’t think that’s good for our society.”

He added that “what we need is an ordered restoration of everyone’s living standards”.

“The tradition has always been that the Government accepts recommendations from the Labour Court and I don’t anticipate that we will make any other decision tomorrow than to accept it.”

Pressed as to whether the Government could reject the recommendation, he said: “I think if the Government gets to the point where it’s rejecting recommendations of the Labour Court it will be very hard to resolve any industrial relations dispute.”

He acknowledged that the context for the Lansdowne Road agreement had now changed because of the proposed Garda pay deal.

He was not saying there would be an early end to the agreement but the Government would work with the 23 unions that had signed up to the agreement to sustain the deal.

He wanted to see public sector pay restored as soon as possible.

“But I want it done in a way that’s sustainable and affordable because we don’t want to repeat mistakes of the past.

“An unsustainable pay increase now is going to be taken back in a few years.”

‘Flexibility’

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea, speaking on the same programme, said “there is quite a bit of flexibility within the Lansdowne Road agreement” to deal with special cases.

In its “confidence and supply” agreement with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil supported the implementation of the Lansdowne Road agreement and recognised the role of the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission as the forum for State intervention in industrial relations disputes.