The public service pay agreement expired on 30 June with no successor in place. SIPTU has now announced that it may ballot over 80,000 members for strike action across the health, local authority and education sectors. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, public service committee has said that it has no basis for any formal talks to begin. Unions have pointed out, and rightly so, the inflation at 3.6% in May, which has already wiped out the 1% increase from February and the 1% increase since June. As the Minister is aware, grocery bills are up by on average about 40%. Our energy bills are hitting the point where they are up by about 60%. We have approaching 500,000 people in arrears when it comes to ESB and gas bills. We have rent at record heights, unthinkable almost a decade ago, with 80% increases in some areas across the State. This directly affects the nurse, the garda, the hospital porter, the educator and those on low salaries in local authorities. They are the people who get up early in the morning, the people the Minister's Government claims to represent with great gusto. The Minister and his Government say they want an agreement but not at any cost, as I understand from reading reports today. They have said that there can be no preconditions. However, it is seven days after the deal expired and there is still no date for substantive talks. We are looking at a country in the middle of an EU Presidency with a real possibility of industrial action across the health, education and local government sectors throughout the summer. Will the Minister tell the House what the Government’s action and timeline is for opening formal negotiations with the unions and looking after public sector pay? Does his Department intend to bring a concrete pay offer to the table? When will those table negotiations start? Will he continue his approach, which we have already worked out has no basis for talks whatsoever?

Sentiment score: 0.02

I thank the Minister for his reply. I have had relative success in business throughout my years. I can confidently say that if I ran my business the way the Government is approaching these negotiations, I would probably be out of business today. That is the reality. As I said, we are now seven days after the expired deal. We should have been at negotiation tables about six months ago to ensure a smooth transition, particularly when this country - with great gusto as the Government has said - is supporting the Presidency of the EU, and to ensure there would not be strikes or anything. We are now putting the horse before the cart yet again. The Minister is playing catch-up continuously. This is affecting nurses, doctors and staff in hospitals. It is affecting gardaí, front-line workers and those lower paid people on whom we depend in local authorities. As one of the Members already said, these are the people who are not coming back. They are leaving in their droves because there is no future or stability. Without a plan in place for them, where they know what the plan is and the funds available to them, they cannot plan for the future. They are not going to come back.

Sentiment score: 0.14