There are clearly elements of the renegotiated Croke Park agreement that are very unfair to certain workers, a fact that is being made worse every day by a very cynical divide and conquer strategy that is being deployed by the Government. We have gardaí, health care workers, nurses, emergency medical technicians, Army personnel and many more who seem to have been singled out for particular treatment. The situation for those workers is deeply unfair. Adding to that unfairness, side deals are being done on an ongoing basis. Fire personnel and prison officers are retaining double pay on a Sunday while their front-line colleagues, the gardaí, EMTs and nurses, are being treated in a much more vindictive way.

A health care assistant on a gross income of €27,000 per annum faces a cut of 8%, meaning a reduction in his weekly pay packet of €50. Workers earning between €150,000 and €185,000 are getting the same percentage cut as the health care worker on €27,000. That is not fair. The reason for it is because the entire deal revolves around the make-up of a person's pay. Two people on the same income according to their payslips at the end of a week will see a considerably different impact on their take-home pay as a result of this deal, depending on how it is made up between core pay and shift work premiums.

There are thousands of shift workers who are on low pay and who work in the front-line services and part of their normal core hours is to work Sunday and night-time. They depend on the premium payments they receive from these hours as part of their normal pay and would have secured their mortgages on that basis. I would ask the Taoiseach a basic question. Why has the Government decided to single out these workers - health care workers, gardaí, emergency medical technicians, nurses, Army personnel - for such unfair treatment as a result of this deal?

Deputy Martin should reflect on the situation that has evolved here. In view of the requirement to have an extra €3 billion of savings by 2015, the take from public pay is €1 billion between now and 2015, as 35% of spending goes on the public pay bill.

The situation is that the unions and management negotiated this over a number of weeks and the LRC put forward its propositions to the unions for their consideration, analysis and decision. It is normal procedure, where unions negotiate on behalf of their members, that letters of clarification issue to unions about specific issues, and that is what has happened here. Nobody is being treated unfairly here. I suggest that the best course of action is to allow the period of reflection and analysis that unions require so that they can discuss this with their members and make their decision in the way that unions do, each in its own voting pattern.

The outcome of the LRC paper will achieve a good balance of equity across public servants given the complexity and range of diversity of public service roles. Essentially, they seek to ensure that those who earn most pay most. Those earning over €65,000 are facing direct pay cuts and those cuts are progressive - up to 10% for those who earn in excess of €185,000. While those earning under €65,000 will have delays in increments, they will not have their pay cut directly. The elements of the LRC paper have been set out. While all public servants are asked to make a contribution, those who can best afford it are being asked to make the biggest contribution.

Front-line staff complained that they were being targeted and it is now clear that they are not being targeted. Their Saturday premia have been retained and the unions in the talks successfully mitigated the proposed reduction in Sunday premia, which is from double time to time and three quarters. Other sectors made significant and proportionate contributions to the overall savings, including teachers and prison officers. It is clear that all public service workers take some impact in this agreement, not only front-line workers. I would suggest that the process is well under way for unions to consider, analysis and decide on their view on the Labour Relation Commission paper, and I hope that they do that.

Deputy Martin will be aware that we made numerous comments about the importance of staying in at the negotiations and discussions. It is clear that the unions that stayed there made an impact in terms of adjustments. The Minister has made it clear that the provisions of the agreement relating to pay, productivity and reform, assuming that they are ratified, will apply to everybody and nobody is being treated unfairly in this context. Everybody has got a contribution to make. Those who earn most and those who have most will make the biggest contribution.

One of the experienced representatives in the nursing field, for example, has described this deal as the most regressive and draconian deal that he personally ever witnessed.

I asked the Taoiseach a simple question about the health care worker on €27,000 who is now being cut €50 a week whereas the exact same percentage cut is being applied to someone on between €150,000 and €185,000. That is not fair. On any analysis of a deal, people have an obligation to face up to the realities. As I stated, there are thousands of shift workers on low incomes who will suffer much more than anybody else as a result of this deal. They are earning under €65,000. I have instanced the healthcare worker. Middle-ranking nurses will face a loss of up to €80 per week, and middle-ranking gardaí as well.

It seems there is a cynicism at the heart of how this has been organised in terms of the strategy of ensuring that the Government gets the votes to get the deal over the line. The Taoiseach's comments speak to that cynicism in the sense of the divide and conquer strategy, where the approach was that the Government would ensure those who left the talks early would be punished. For example, how can the Government speak of equalising start-up pay for teachers but expect nurses to start their careers at 80% of the basic income? An Army private is losing anything up to 14% while a general is losing 5%. There are clear inequities in how this is working out for many on low incomes. The Taoiseach should look at that. There is the business of the Government doing a side deal with the fire brigade and its staff can have their double pay on a Sunday, but gardaí, notwithstanding all their difficult work, and that they put their lives on the line, it will not get the same treatment.

It is disgraceful.

That is what is going on here. It is the same with the prison officers, nurses, health care workers or emergency medical technicians.

I thank Deputy Martin.

That is not fair. There must be a systemic approach. One cannot merely state that the deal one gets depends on what union one is in. That is not good enough.

They shafted the workers again.

It is advisable that we in this House express our respect for the trade unions which go about their business in representing their members in the best way possible.

Some nurses were represented at the talks; others were not.

It is stacked up against them.

The gardaí are not allowed to be represented.

Please allow a reply.

The case Deputy Martin mentions may be a person who works a very different pattern of work than an average worker every week and may be at the extreme end of increments and premium payments. The point here is that these negotiations were the first and the most detailed. They were spread out across the spectrum, from those who earn the most to all of those under €65,000-----

Not true.

-----who are not having any direct pay cuts applied to them. Everybody will make a contribution to reaching the target set here, which is about sorting out the public finances, getting the deficit down to 3% by 2015 and making arrangements that every person in the public sector, from the highest to the latest recruit, would make a contribution towards what is essentially a national challenge.

Nobody underestimates the difficulty that this imposes for anybody, but these talks were the widest, the most detailed and the most targeted.

They were targeted. I accept that.

They are the fairest across the board because they have been negotiated by the unions who clearly have made fundamental adjustments to original propositions.

Sweet deals.

In having that respect for all of those unions, I now want them to have the time to assess-----

They did not even give Mr. Jack O'Connor any time.

-----consider, decide and give their decision in respect of the paper and the propositions put before them by the Labour Relations Commission.

This is, essentially, as the Minister has pointed out, the last of these adjustments and there will not be another one. The detail of the programme has already been set out-----

There will be another programme.

-----in the paper published by the Labour Relations Commission.