Fine Gael wants wage freeze until 2010
As the controversial row over public pay cuts continues, Fine Gael today called for a wage freeze until 2010.
The opposition party also believes that any proposed wage cuts should only apply to workers earning more than €100,000.
Speculation is mounting that the Government may try to enforce wage cuts or lay-offs in the public sector to save €2bn in 2009.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said: “We believe that the pay freeze across the public sector should extend to the end of 2010.”
The party estimates the measure will result in €1.5bn in Exchequer savings.
“We also believe that, in the event of the Government introducing pay cuts, they should only affect people earning more than €100,000,” Mr Kenny added.
Fine Gael claimed at its national conference in November that the Exchequer could not afford the current national wage agreement which promises 6% in staggered pay rises.
Earlier the Taoiseach refuted media reports that he made references to the International Monetary Fund at recent briefings with unions or employers.
“We are a member of the Euro area and we have the best-performing economy in the last ten years in the European Union,” he said during a trade mission in Tokyo.
The general secretary of the Public Services’ Executive Dan Murphy also clarified earlier comments on the issue and said he had “personally concluded” that the IMF could be called into Ireland if economic conditions worsened.
In recent weeks the IMF has intervened in the economies in Iceland, Hungary and Latvia who are outside the Eurozone.
Mr Kenny, who was speaking during an Opposition front bench meeting in Maynooth, warned the Government that it would get ’no political absolution’ from Fine Gael for its mismanagement of the economy.
“They deliberately and consciously walked this Government into the economic morass we now find ourselves in.
“This is the Government that is politically bankrupt, morally bankrupt and is now financially bankrupting our country.”
He added: “We are now losing the equivalent of ’five Dells’ every month.
Earlier Minister of State Sean Power offered to relinquish his junior minister’s job which seemed in agreement with a Green Party proposal to remove three of the 20 current posts.
Mr Kenny also claimed that Department of Finance estimates were wrong by €2m over a four-week period.
“That’s €500m a week. You can’t believe a word out of this Government’s mouth,” he said.
“We are not going to make money in this country by simply selling houses to each other
“We have to get back our competitiveness and become cost effective again,” he added.
