Public sector pay dispute ‘unwarranted given our willingness to talk’, Taoiseach says

The Taoiseach has defended the Government’s approach to public sector pay negotiations and said a dispute “would be unwarranted given our willingness to talk”.Opening the formal Dáil debate on Budget 2027, Micheál Martin said there had been a willingness to increase the number of public service positions and implement “substantial pay agreements”.“What no one can expect us to do is to accept unilateral preconditions before discussions, or to give up our right to table proposals,” he said. “Any dispute on this basis serves no positive purpose and simply delays negotiations which we have shown time and again that we always approach in good faith.”READ MOREEarlier during Leaders’ Questions, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said public sector workers were “still left without any pay deal”.“The Taoiseach says the Government is ready to engage in public sector pay,” she said, but asked why Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers did not contact “any union leader” to “avert industrial action”.Public sector unions have started industrial action, with more than 100,000 members commencing a work-to-rule on Wednesday.Some €1.2 billion has been set aside in the budget for the sector. Martin said “there is no basis for industrial action or for disrupting people in education, health or anything else” when they had a basis “for negotiation on a new pay agreement”. He also defended the budget against criticism from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac), which provides independent assessment of how Government handles public finances.The council said the budget put public finances on “a worse trajectory by repeatedly breaking established spending limits and increasingly relying on high-risk corporation tax”.[ Budget puts public finances on worse trajectory, watchdog warnsOpens in new window ]The Taoiseach said the Government was conscious of showing financial restraint given some revenues “may be temporary” and “we have rejected many of the escalating demands for extra permanent spending”.He said “allowing for the growth in the economy, total spending has remained very static over the period 2022–2030”, using “independently reviewed” Department of Finance forecasts.Putting an extra €1 billion into the Future Ireland Fund, to a €7.5 billion total, “is a very significant measure and a signal of our commitment to protecting against economic risks”.But “we must reach a judgment on the balance between this restraint and being responsive to the very real impact which international events have had”, particularly “significant increases in the cost of living”.Tánaiste Simon Harris said the remarkable resilience of Ireland’s economy is an “astonishing accomplishment” given “where we have been in last two decades”.[ How Budget 2027 will impact families: From renters to stay-at-home parentsOpens in new window ]Forecasting an additional 53,000 jobs next year, he said “countries do not find themselves in such a strong position by accident. “It is because over successive governments and across many years we have got the big decisions right.”This year a surplus of €6.7 billion is expected, rising to €9.5 billion next year.He said it “is precisely because we managed our public finances responsibly that we have been able to react with flexibility and speed to the latest shock” of the war in the Middle East.Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, however, described the budget as “devoid of imagination and ambition”.She claimed it was the “product of an inability to listen or to understand what workers and families are going through”.[ When budget changes kick in and how to claim themOpens in new window ]McDonald said it was the 11th Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael budget she had heard, and claimed the Coalition parties “always put those at the top first, the golden circles ahead of the ordinary workers and families of Ireland, the people who actually create the wealth”.Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon said funding to the greyhound industry was increased again but “at the same time, women coming forward still do not have access to domestic violence refuge beds.“There is luxury in this budget, but it is not going to the people who are hardest hit, the people most pressed to the bone.”