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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said that the possibility of cuts to public sector pay cannot be ruled out if negotiations on a successor to the Croke Park Agreement with trade unions fail.
He also said that the issue of increments paid to some public sector workers are on the table as negotiations, which got under way this week, continue in the coming days.
Kenny said that the government had committed to making €1 billion in savings in the public sector by 2015 and said that pay accounted for a third of that figure.
“We want to achieve those savings by agreement and consent where that’s possible and I hope that can be achieved,” Kenny told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.
But he said that the government “reserved the right to legislate for reductions in pay where agreement can’t be reached” and said that the €200 million in increments were on the table.
He also did not rule out a process of benchmarking in the future but “not in the way it was done before”.
Kenny said that he hoped that current “intensive negotiations” between trade union leaders and the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin would see an agreement reached.
Two years after the collapse of the last government, Kenny defended his own administration’s record so far and pointed out that in the three years prior to this government taking office 250,000 jobs had been lost in the private sector.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny being interviewed on The Week in Politics today (Screengrab: RTÉ)
He said that under the previous government the country was “haemorrhaging jobs all over the place” and said that lower and middle income families have been protected by his government’s policies.
“We’ve beaten adversity before, we are making very steady progress here. You’ve not heard me speaking of green shoots of recovery or everything is rosy in the garden,” he said.
Kenny told the programme that he was confident that the “patently unfair” situation with the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note would be dealt with and the deal – which sees Ireland paying €3.06 billion every year for the next ten years – would be “restructured and re-engineered”.
He said he foresaw the deal as being restructured “from a serious overdraft to a long-term, low-interest mortgage”.
On the issue of abortion and yesterday’s pro-life vigil in Dublin, Kenny said that he was “not in the business of liberalising abortion”.
The Taoiseach said the government had a “duty and responsibility” to bring clarity to the legal situation on when an abortion is permissible in Ireland and insisted that the law would be strict and narrow.
“It is strictly, very strictly on the narrow line of what our constitution means, voted on by the people,” he said.
He said it was important that the issue was treated with sensitivity and insisted that it would not lead to a liberal abortion regime in Ireland.
“I am receiving correspondence and messages from all over the country… I am now being branded as worse than Herod,” Kenny said, adding: “I am not in the business of liberalising abortion. I am not in the business of providing abortion on demand.”
Information is power and hogan has taken away the most basic human right! Access to information.
The first person commented how there was no sound (and has now removed their comment, there is sound!! ) imagine the frustration you felt when watching the video, that’s our lives every day. Frustrating. Tiring. Limiting.
Return our ‘sound’
Yet another botched decision. , the craziness continues .
The video tells the tale. This is a shameless government, dismantling the few decent services that give some degree of dignity to those in need of them.
ISL should be enshrined in the constitution with full protection of rights!
I know it’s racist but, why don’t we take a few grand out of the foreign aid budget?
Sometimes I really do hope there is a hell and I hope those like Hogan burn there for eternity. The man should not be allowed to be in charge of opening a door.
Why was that comment “there is no sound” been removed, for all you know that person may be deaf, ok so we all say he made a joke, try understand what the people are saying without reading the text I can just about lipread can’t sign and I can’t hear. People who know me who comment on here will know I am deaf, and not taking the piss.
Why would you need sound? See the world the way deaf people do!
I could have used this service had I known about it,now that I have its closed,then I may not have got because the household income might be €2 over the limit.
€8m is all that’s needed here!
Was even borrowing it and putting it on the “slate” considered?
Typical of Ireland and it’s backward government,hitting the needy and taking from the people that need services most.it can sometimes be very difficult for deaf people to integrate into society and now they are being victimised by their own government by the closure if deaforward they must feel further away from the rest of society than ever.The government shouod be embarrassed and ashamed but one thing is for sure,they are not!
Why am I not surprised? Oh yes because I live in Ireland.
It is with great dismay I read about the cut in funding to this vital service for the deaf community. The video above clearly illustrates how this service is needed so as to ensure that members of the deaf community are able to interact with bodies such as hospitals, government agencies and utilities companies in a dignified manner and on the same basis as any member of the hearing community.
For the government to cut this funding is tantamount to denying members of the deaf community the ability to access such basic human rights as to health and education. It is discrimination at the most fundamental level where the effect (intended or otherwise) is to marginalise 5,000 citizens of this country. It cannot be justified by raising budgetary concerns where less vital expenditure could be cut in its place.
i want our ids back, i don’t want be isolated again, need break the barrier, where can i go ? and access to health care, education etc, i wont go to gp if there is no interpreter, they gave me wrong med or no information. i have enough suffer in my childhood so enough is enough.
Totally agree Michelle! This decision is BEYOND shocking and an insult to every deaf person in this country!
This decision by Minister Hogan confirms his level of ignorance in dealing with people who have special needs. It’s obvious he neither understands nor cares about people who are challenged everyday in their efforts to live a normal life. These special services are a real and measurable lifeline for thousands of ordinary Irish citizens. “It’s a long road that hasn’t got a bend” and this decision will come back to haunt you Mr. Hogan
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