Taoiseach cautions on public sector pay

THERE WILL be further public sector pay cuts if the Croke Park agreement is not fully implemented with greater speed, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has confirmed.

He told the Dáil that while some savings had been achieved, the agreement needed to be accelerated. “We do not want to see a situation whereby the consequences for numbers or pay are forced upon us. That will not be necessary if the agreement is delivered on in full.”

The Taoiseach was replying to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who asked if he agreed with the assertion by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte that further pay cuts would be required if savings were not secured.

Mr Kenny said Mr Rabbitte and others were merely pointing out that a condition of the EU-IMF deal was there would be consequences if the terms of the agreement were not delivered on by the appropriate date.

Members of the House, he added, could be assured that public service reform would be kept at the centre of the Government’s thinking and he looked forward to real progress being delivered in the near future.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said his party supported efficiency and an end to waste and bureaucracy, including the public sector. Reform and productivity could and should be achieved in co-operation with workers’ representatives and not through threats, he said.

“We have the shameful position of Labour Party Ministers speaking about the consequences for public service workers, pay cuts and so on,” Mr Adams added.

Mr Kenny said the agreement had been made, signed off and voted on in the House. “I made it perfectly clear that when the Croke Park agreement was put together that we respected its public pay element.”

Ministers had been pointing out the reality of the conditions signed off on by the previous government and the EU and IMF.

Mr Adams said many of the public servants involved were lowpaid workers who provided front-line services that were essential for the welfare of citizens and those who were vulnerable.

“There is waste as well as huge salaries at the top of the public service,” he said.

Mr Kenny replied that under the public service agreement, the position on pay must be reviewed on an annual basis and this would happen before June 30th. It would take account of sustainable savings generated from the agreement’s implementation.

The EU-IMF programme, he added, stated that by the end of the third quarter of this year the Government “will consider an appropriate adjustment, including in the overall public service wage bill, to compensate for potential shortfalls in the projected savings . . . [from] efficiencies and public service number reductions”.

Everybody understood, said Mr Kenny, that the agreement must be implemented. “That is why it must be speeded up.”

Joe Higgins (Socialist Party) said public sector reform and the Croke Park deal were “really a crude cover for cutting thousands of jobs in the public sector”.

Richard Boyd Barrett (ULA) said apart from the injustice of visiting pay cuts on low and middle-income public sector workers, the proposals were economically irrational. The Government would be taking money out of the pockets of ordinary workers who spent in the economy.

Mr Kenny said Ireland was in serious difficulty and a more efficient public service with smaller numbers was required.

“That is not to decry the heroic efforts of many people in the public service who strive constantly to deliver the best service in very trying conditions. I speak particularly of those in the health, education and justice areas,” the Taoiseach added.