POLITICAL REACTION:THE AGREEMENT between the Government and the public service unions would provide "confidence and stability", Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday.
In a statement on the conclusion of the Croke Park negotiations, Mr Cowen said he hoped the agreement would be ratified by the union membership.
“This agreement will provide confidence and stability in the public service to meet both current and future challenges and I hope that there will be a positive outcome to the ratification process,” Mr Cowen said.
Mr Cowen said the agreement “will ensure that together we can create a public service of which we can be proud and a public service which we can afford”.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore commended Kieran Mulvey and the Labour Relations Commission, adding that he hoped the draft agreement would be considered by trade union members “in a calm and rational way.
“While the full details of the draft agreement are not yet available, what has been agreed between the Government and union negotiators may have the potential to significantly reform public services and lead to much improved services for the public.
“At the same time public sector workers are being asked to agree to major changes in work practices, while the proposals in regard to the restoration of lost salary are somewhat uncertain. However, I welcome the commitment that priority for reimbursement will be given to those earning less than €35,000,” Mr Gilmore said.
Fine Gael’s Enterprise Spokesman, Leo Varadkar said: “These proposals are broadly in line with Fine Gael’s suggestion that pay cuts could be re-examined in return for real reform and transformation in the public sector.
“However, any verification of public sector reforms must be conducted externally and cannot be allowed to become a rubber-stamping exercise, as happened with benchmarking.
However Socialist Party MEP, Joe Higgins, said it “beggars belief” that trade union leaders “would have the brazenness to propose to low and middle income public sector workers that they should agree, not just an acceptance of the savage wage cuts already meted out, but revolutionary measures that can have a further devastating effect on the incomes and working conditions of those workers.”
Sinn Féin workers’ rights spokesman Martin Ferris said the deal was flawed: “While there are, apparently, to be no further pay cuts, the deal is flawed in failing to reverse the pay cuts for even the lowest paid public service workers.”
Minister of State for Labour Affairs and Public Service Transformation Dara Calleary said it was vital to “maximise the contribution that the public service can make to sustainable economic renewal and this will be enabled by the many important transformation commitments which have now been agreed by management and unions.”
The Minister of Statesaid: “My new role will allow me to co-ordinate the transformation effort across the public service and the agreement concluded between management and unions offers an exciting opportunity to create a renewed ‘fit for purpose’ public service”.
