Bruton asks Fianna Fáil TDs to reject pay U-turn

FINE GAEL’S finance spokesman Richard Bruton has challenged disgruntled Government TDs to vote with the Opposition this week over the reversal of pay cuts for some 600 high-earning public servants.

While Fianna Fáil backbenchers opposed to the controversial measure say they hope the issue will be resolved to their satisfaction, none are expected to support a Private Members’ motion tabled by Fine Gael.

“This Wednesday, Fine Gael will put it up to the Government and use our Private Members’ time to insist that higher earners are treated the same as everyone else in the Civil Service,” Mr Bruton said. “Government deputies will be given the opportunity to vote with Fine Gael or to vote down the motion and allow pay cuts for lower earners to exceed that of their higher-paid colleagues.”

Former minister of state Noel Ahern was among those who made his critical views known at last week’s Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, when a motion calling on Government to reverse its decision to alter the pay cuts was not voted on.

Yesterday, he said the pension prospects of the more than 600 public servants would give them an unfair advantage. Mr Ahern, a brother of the former taoiseach, said: “We live in hope this will be put right, if not in the short term then in the long term.”

Mattie McGrath TD, who put down the motion at the parliamentary party meeting, yesterday said he continued to find the situation "very unpalatable". Pressed on whether he would support the Fine Gael motion when he appeared on RTÉ Radio One's Morning Irelandprogramme last week, Mr McGrath said: "That's a maybe, definitely".

Yesterday, he claimed to have met Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan about the issue on Wednesday night, and said he hoped to speak to the Minister again this morning. He was also in contact with Government chief whip Pat Carey.

Mr McGrath said he hoped to secure “commitments going forward related to taxation”, stressing he was not seeking measures specific to his Tipperary South constituency.

Michael Kennedy (Dublin North), who has also criticised the reversal, last night accused Fine Gael of “political posturing” in putting down the motion.

The Fine Gael motion will be tabled in the Dáil tomorrow evening and is expected to come to a vote on Wednesday night.

It states that the pre-Christmas decision to reverse the salary reductions announced in the budget for high-earning public servants, while leaving cuts for the lowest-paid public servants unchanged, is “neither just nor equitable”.

Mr Lenihan was applauded after defending the Government’s decision at last week’s Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, which was also addressed by Taoiseach Brian Cowen. At the previous week’s meeting, which Mr Lenihan and Mr Cowen did not attend, some 15 TDs and Senators had expressed criticism.