Ireland must keep costs down and be competitive to face the uncertainty linked to Brexit and other international issues, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said as he defended the Government’s approach to pay talks.

Mr Kenny told Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams that "we need to focus on how as a country we can best move forward" as he repeated the Government's plan to "have a co-ordinated approach by means of a well-managed strategy, to deal with the challenges we face".

Mr Adams told Mr Kenny “the issue of pay for workers who have suffered the brunt of the Government’s policies is now front and centre and is not going away”.

He called on Mr Kenny to engage in urgent talks with public and private sector unions and said it was easy for TDs because “we are well protected from economic difficulties”.

Mr Adams said: “What comes out of those negotiations is another matter, but refusing to engage is only making the problem worse.”

Wage increases

The Louth TD asked Mr Kenny if he ever asked himself why workers are seeking wage increases. “Do you think they are being greedy or self-serving? Do you think they are trying to keep the recovery going?

Mr Adams said families were in dire straits and crippled by a “cost of living crisis” including spiralling rents.

Mr Kenny said the Minister for Housing would introduce a comprehensive rent strategy in the next couple of weeks.

He added that because of the Government’s success in creating jobs people “are under pressure to get out of their housing estates to travel to work and they spend longer times doing so”. But he stressed that Ireland had to remain competitive and that meant keeping costs down.

Mr Adams said the only conclusion a sensible person could come to in listening to the Taoiseach’s reply was that he and members of the Cabinet “are both incompetent and unfit to be in government”.