Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said the €1.2 billion for public sector pay talks announced in the Budget is the “starting point” for discussions, and the only way to develop that is to agree to have talks.
More than 300,000 public sector workers including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, are engaged in strike action over delays in agreeing a new public sector pay deal.
The 24-hour work stoppage has caused widespread disruption including the closure of schools and the cancellation of thousands of hospital appointments.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, Mr Chambers said that intensive work is ongoing and it is in everyone’s interest that an agreement is achieved.
“They want the Government and everybody involved to get around a table and come to an agreement, and that’s all I want to achieve.
“We’ll set out the details of that when it’s agreed,” he said.
He said there was a need to have a collective approach to this going forward.
“We have to progress that in the coming hours and in the next day or so,” he said.
“Everyone wants to see the Government and trade unions get around the table”.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he detected “a sense of goodwill and a willingness to try and get a resolution” to the public sector strike threat.
Speaking in Brussels this evening, Mr Martin said he had been in touch with Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers today.
He said: “The Government is open for negotiations and open for dialogue.
“We want to get into a negotiating process. We have provided substantial funding in the budget to enable that to happen.”
“I believe there’s a platform there for negotiations. If you look at the Budget, where we cut taxes, where we reduce childcare costs, and also improve the situation in relation to disability, and you ally that with the provision in the estimates, I think there’s a good platform there.
“We will engage and see can we find a basis and a process that would be satisfactory to all sides to enable negotiations to take place and avoid any action next week,” he added.
Watch: Minister Jack Chambers discusses public sector dispute on RTÉ’s Six One News
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‘Dialogue and negotiations’ must get under way – Canney
Minister of State with responsibility for Road Safety Seán Canney has said he “fully recognises the pressures facing public servants and workers”, and that he believes the priority now “must be to get a process of dialogue and negotiations under way”.
“We remain open to negotiations, and I welcome the willingness expressed by trade union representatives to engage in a process aimed at resolving the outstanding issues,” said Mr Canney, who is leader in the Cabinet of the Independent Ministers.
“With goodwill on all sides, I believe we can move towards a resolution of the outstanding issues and a new public service pay agreement,” he said.
“I sincerely hope that further industrial action can be avoided.
“We will spare no effort to get talks going and will continue to work towards establishing a process of dialogue that can lead to a resolution,” he added.
Sinn Féin calls on Taoiseach to intervene in pay dispute
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has called for the Taoiseach to “pick up the phone” and intervene in the public sector pay deal dispute.
Speaking outside Leinster House, where hundreds of people are partaking in strike action, Ms McDonald accused the Government of playing a “terrible and disrespectful game of chicken” with 300,000 public workers.
“I think the very fact that this has come to industrial reaction action is a reflection of the failure of Government.
“It beggars belief that they have known now for months that they need to engage and negotiate a new pay agreement, and they have failed to do that.
“I think they have played a really terrible and disrespectful game of chicken with 300,000 workers that we all rely on.
“We rely on them to take care of us when we’re sick. They educate our children. They run our services, and indeed, they run the building and the system behind us that we serve in here as elected representatives of the people, so I think you can feel the really strong sense of public support for all of the workers.”
Ms McDonald said that at this stage the Taoiseach needed to intervene, adding: “The phone needs to be lifted.”
Responding to Minister for Public Finance Jack Chambers last night saying that pay can “absolutely” be the starting point for negotiations on the pay deal, Ms McDonald said she was “not interested in Government semantics”.
“I think that the Government has demonstrated their lack of respect and their complete incompetence around all of this.
“They need to state very clearly to all of these workers and their representative bodies that pay talks will focus on pay. That that is in fact the first item for discussion.
“I think the fact that they have brought us to this point, the Government, through their incompetence and their lack of respect, is truly and utterly a disgrace on them, the Government,” she added.
Taoiseach welcomes ‘tone and disposition’ of trade union leaders
It comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin welcomed the “tone and disposition” of trade union leaders after the head of Forsá indicated a resolution to the ongoing dispute could be found.
When asked if the situation was better today than it was yesterday, Mr Martin said: “I’d like to think that without overstating it and I understand fully the pressures people are on, the pressures public servants are on and workers are on, so we’re focused on trying to get a process going that can lead to a satisfactory outcome in terms of a new National Pay Agreement.”
Speaking in Irish, Mr Martin reiterated that the Government feels there is an opportunity after today to come to an agreement with trade unions and that pay will take priority at the beginning of any negotiations.
Appoint ‘honest broker’ to resolve dispute
General Secretary of Fórsa and Chair of ICTU’s Public Services Committee Kevin Callinan has called on the Taoiseach to intervene in the public pay row and appoint “an honest broker” to resolve the dispute.
However, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he also struck a conciliatory note, adding how he thought it “possible that we could build a potential pathway to a resolution on it”, after Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said talks with unions could “absolutely” begin with pay.
Mr Callinan has also said that if Minister Chambers had met unions over the past four months, today’s strike action could have been avoided.
“We’ve been very clear that the gap that has arisen between wages and inflation and that has been accelerated by the most recent bout of inflation has to form part of a new public service deal.”
Mr Callinan said that the Taoiseach needs to step in to resolve the dispute.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said the comments from Minister Chambers offer a “glimmer of hope” for a breakthrough in the public sector pay dispute.
She urged the Government not to row back from what she said was a “change of tone” and she urged the coalition to put pay squarely on the table.
Ms Bacik was speaking outside Leinster House as she joined picketing workers outside the complex.
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300,000 workers striking in action over public pay deal
All you need to know about work-to-rule industrial action
Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins has said she believes there will be support for striking public sector workers if they decide to proceed with a second strike next week.
A second day of action is currently set for 21 October.
Speaking outside Leinster House, she said: “If the Government can’t get into negotiations with the unions, people will be back out next Wednesday as well, and there will still be support for them next week.
“I would really, really hope that the unions will be listened to by the Government, and the Government will get their finger out now and start negotiating,” she said.
Asked if she believed public support for the strikers may wane if further protests were held beyond next Wednesday, she said there is a risk of that happening.
“But let’s hope that that isn’t the situation,” she added.
“However, I think that there’s huge sympathy at the moment, certainly for this week and next week, and then further than that, sure, we’d have to see what the what the context would be then.
‘Quite possible’ fuel protesters may return to streets – Collins
It is “quite possible” fuel protestors may return to the streets in response to the cost of living crisis, Independent Ireland TD Michael Collins has said.
Deputy Collins made the comments outside Leinster House, where he arrived to support striking trade union members who he said were protesting after seeing the benefit of doing so after April’s fuel protests.
Speaking with reporters, Deputy Collins said this is “the second time in 12 months” the Government’s response to protestors has “ground the country to a halt”.
He said “they did the very same with the fuel protestors”, and said ordinary people including those taking part in the unofficial protests in April and those taking part in officially organised strike action today said “have no choice, at the end of the day they have very little left”.
Additional reporting by Tony Connelly
