The Government is in negotiations to extend the Croke Park agreement. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree with me that a fair and just outcome to the talks is essential. There is growing concern that the new agreement will target and impose a disproportionate burden on front-line workers who are rostered to work on a 24/7 basis. Approximately 80,000 workers are involved. They include gardaí, nurses, prison officers and emergency medical technicians - people who work through the night to protect their communities and streets and provide emergency and essential services. This is done in a 24-hour basis for 365 days per year.

The proposals at the talks suggest the workers face a pay cut of 10% plus, including through changes in their premium pay. In plain euro, this means a Garda with ten years' service will lose €200 per month, which is €50 per week. This is a very significant hit. A nurse on an average salary of €40,000 per year will face a cut of €320 per month. These amounts are excessive. One group will be taking an excessive hit by comparison with any another.

Coupled with this, morale is very low in the services. It is very low in the Garda, for example, and is at a tipping point. It is not I who is saying this; rather, the gardaí are saying it to every Deputy who bothers to meet them to talk. We are in dangerous territory here and the Taoiseach needs to be aware of that.

The health sector depends on 24/7 rosters, frameworks and structures. It cannot operate without such a framework. There are alternatives that should be pursued. A cut of €320 per month is too high for an individual, as is a cut of €200 per month. I appeal to the Taoiseach and those engaged in the talks not to sacrifice the health sector or the health service workers to get a deal over the line. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the outcome of the talks will not be the targeting of, or imposition of a disproportionate burden on those on the front line who are rostered on a 24/7 basis?

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was mandated by the Government to become involved in the process of negotiating the new Croke Park arrangement. It is a wage negotiation process that is currently under way. It is wrong of anybody to assume he can state what the outcome of the negotiations will be. What the Government wants is a fair and balanced outcome across the board in respect of its target for a reduction in pay this year, leading to an extra saving of €1 billion by 2015. This is a challenging position for every public servant. I regard every public servant as being a front-line person in his own way.

I have seen the various statements from the representatives of the trade unions, and the Deputy will have seen the statements of trade unions in regard to front-line workers. The Deputy should understand, however, that the negotiations are ongoing and in a critical and intensive stage. Everybody who has a concern or issue he wants to have discussed and negotiated should get back in where the discussions actually take place, that is, around the table. It is not correct for anybody to state now what the outcome of the negotiations will be.

Reference was made to gardaí yesterday during Question Time. We have absolute respect for the work that gardaí must do. I know from having spoken to gardaí in various stations that morale is very low. This is partly attributable to the fact that, in the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, there were 200 Garda vehicles purchased. In 2012, some 213 new vehicles were purchased. This year, there is an allocation of €5 million, and I expect 250 new vehicles to be purchased. The gardaí – the officers – do need the best facilities to do their job. The pay discussions are ongoing and they involve all the public servants. I regard the job they do as absolutely critical to the provision of the best public services for our people, including taxpayers.

Rather than attempt to predetermine the outcome of the negotiations, I suggest that everybody focus on what is at stake. We must make reductions to get to the required point on the path to which we are committed, and that involves lowering our deficit to 3% by 2015. This is challenging for all public servants. The place to work it out is at the table where discussion takes place.

The figures that have been presented to me are from people who are at the table.

Bits of them.

I am not making them up. It is the people at the table who are providing the figures. This is what has been tabled.

The Government is already breaching the current Croke Park agreement.

Would Members mind allowing the Deputy to make his point without adding to it?

It is people on the front line who believe they are being targeted and that the hit they will suffer will be disproportionate.

All public servants are not the same.

Would the Deputies please allow Deputy Martin to contribute? He has one minute in which to make his case.

Consider those who must drive through the night in pursuit of dangerous criminals, for example. As the Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and Equality and I know, this happens up and down and across the Border on many occasions in the middle of the night, and the officers in question put their lives at risk. They are in a different category. Let us not pretend they are not and that they are somehow similar to others. They are not, and that is why there was premium pay for people in such circumstances from day one. What about officers on the streets at 3 a.m. trying to deal with antisocial behaviour? They are different.

Consider the role of paramedics and emergency medical technicians who must perform emergency services at 2 a.m. or 6 a.m. That has to be done. They are not all the same and we need to acknowledge that. That is the fundamental point we need to acknowledge. I do not buy the divide and conquer approach and the attempt to single out and target emergency workers for what is an unfair and a disproportionate hit on their incomes. That is the core point here.

To date in this crisis, no individual has been asked to take a hit of €320 per month. Every individual, irrespective of where he or she is on the scale, has obligations, mortgages and so on. On previous occasions, it was across the board and no one was asked to take a hit of €320 per month or, for that matter, €200 per month. That is the point I am making.

The Minister for Justice and Equality is very clear that there is not low morale in the Garda but I am glad the Taoiseach acknowledged that there is. We are just listening to people on the ground and I put it to the Taoiseach that there is a problem with emergency workers. I am not making this up. I have been meeting all of them in the context of these talks.

I ask Deputies to respect the person asking the question and the person replying. Neither of them needs help from the backbenches or anywhere else. Could we have silence, please? I call the Taoiseach.

I am not at all taken by the mock anger of Deputy Martin on this matter. Everything he says these days goes back on what he signed off on. There is actually €90 million more available for the Garda Síochána because the Minister for Justice and Equality was able to recalibrate what the Government, of which he was a member, signed off on for the Garda Síochána for 2012 to 2014, inclusive. The reason we have to make all of these challenging decisions is because of the mess created by the Government of which Deputy Martin was a member.

The Taoiseach has choices.

I respect the work every public servant does and this is not an easy position for a great number of people, but I trust those negotiating these talks to sit around the table, at which these wage discussions are taking place, and to work out a fair and balanced situation across the board so that we will not have a situation where anyone feels he or she has been deliberately discriminated against or targeted in these discussions.

Deputy Martin knows one cannot judge the outcome of any of these discussions by taking bits and pieces of comments, allegations and speculation and by throwing figures around here and there. These are intensive and serious wage negotiations and they are being conducted by professional people between the unions and management. I hope everybody who has an issue, a concern or an anxiety will sit down at that table and negotiate, in a professional way, a fair and balanced outcome for everybody, so that we can get on with dealing with the problem in our country - a €12 billion deficit this year, a €9 billion deficit in 2014 and a €5 billion deficit in 2015. That is the unholy mess we must clean up. We are set on this course and that is what we will do. I would urge everybody involved in these talks to sit down professionally and work things out in a way that we can have a future for all those coming behind us.

Deputies should settle down. A cup of coffee might help. I call Deputy Adams.

I suggest Deputies go for a cup of coffee while we get on with the business.