Fianna Fáil has learned lessons from the past, says Fine Gael Minister
Fine Gael's Housing Minister Simon Coveney said today that Fianna Fáil has "learned lessons from the past".
Cork South-Central TD also said that while the Government is committed to pay restoration - it must be done in a timeline the country can afford, or it could jeopardise vital services.
One of the largest public sector trade unions, SIPTU, has agreed to give Ministers a fortnight to set a date for public salary negotiations - or it will ballot its 60,000 members on industrial action.
Pressure is building since the recent deal granted to gardaí - but the Government insists that the Lansdowne Road Agreement remains in place until 2018.
Minister Coveney said that they are committed to pay restoration but it must be done in a timeline the country can afford.
"The issue now is, we need to work with other parties that want to be responsible, parties that have learned lessons from the past, and I think Fianna Fáil have, to be fair to them," he said.
"And I think that is why you are hearing the kind of rhetoric from Fianna Fáil that you're hearing at the moment, that 'Look, we need to be responsible here, let's not start to commit to things the country cannot afford, because we start to unravel'," he said.
