Strikes: Public service stands up for a new pay deal

NO SOONER was the Garda strike called off late on Thursday than we heard the stampede of other public-service workers demanding equal treatment.

The genie is now very much out of the bottle and it is safe to say that the Lansdowne Road Agreement is dead.

Having been the only show in town for so long, its premature demise was a sign of how weak this minority government is and why it really should be put out of its misery.

You could hear the nation’s jaw dropping as people listened to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday morning as Ingrid Miley, its industrial affairs correspondent, totted up the various new payments to the gardaí.

New rent allowance payments; new payments for going on holidays; new payments for handing over your shift; new payments for parading.

Not bad if you can get it.

All it will cost is about €50m, we are told. A quick totting up of the figures reveals that individual gardaí will be at least €2,500 better off each year.

Obviously, with all eyes now on the ASTI and its teacher members, it is clear that Thursday’s deal proposed by the Labour Court is a game changer.

But the impact of the Garda deal, while averting yesterday’s strike, has been to undermine completely the standing of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

Trade union Unite yesterday called for an extraordinary general meeting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to discuss the re-negotiation of the Lansdowne Road Agreement in light of current developments.

Unite officer Richie Browne said: “Today, it is clear that the Lansdowne Road Agreement is not delivering for workers and must be replaced with a new agreement which fully reflects our economic recovery.”

Brendan Howlin, the Labour leader who negotiated the Lansdowne Road Agreement, concurred that it is now effectively dead and called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Paschal Donohoe to move to replace it immediately.

Howlin correctly made the point that for Lansdowne Road to hold, side deals of this nature are not possible.

Brendan Howlin

He said all public servants would have to be eligible for the same add-ons awarded to the gardaí for the Lansdowne Road deal to continue. But how feasible is that?

Another problem now is that on foot of the new offer, the Government’s desire to kick this to a new Public Service Pay Commission is also dead in the water.

Donohoe will have his work cut out trying to contain the demands of the ravenous unions.

Kenny insisted the Lansdowne Road Agreement is still viable, despite the unions questioning what the Labour Court recommendation on Garda pay means for them.

Kenny said that Donohoe does not have an endless pot of money.

Significantly, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, warned that there must now be a clear, new policy for public-sector pay.

He said: “The lack of a coherent public-service pay policy at Government level, the last-ditch nature of the talks will undoubtedly embolden the ASTI and other unions, and it is vital the overall integrity of the Lansdowne Road agreement is maintained.”

One unholy mess.