THE Government, as an "employer" would maintain "a very tight position on public sector pay", the Taoiseach has, warned. Mr Bruton was commenting at the opening of talks in Dublin Castle yesterday on a successor to the PCW.
Any new arrangements on public pay would have to "guarantee certainty on future costs and take full account of the existing carry over costs arising from the PCW", he said. The increases would also have to provide for greater productivity to meet the criteria for European Monetary Union and underpin the overall competitiveness of the Irish economy.
While Mr Bruton urged restraint within the public sector, he also acknowledged that greater productivity and flexibility had to be rewarded within the public and private sectors. "We must create the space to reward performance", he said. "And then we must agree on the criteria to be observed in doing so."
But changed work practices, by themselves, could provide "no basis in future for a claim for increased incomes".
Mr Bruton endorsed the social partnership approach under the last three national agreements, saying that they had served the country well.
He accepted the need to broaden the concept of social partnership and the role of the National Economic and Sodal Forum in deepening that process. It was on this basis that the Government had agreed to broaden the new talks to include the voluntary and community sectors.
"It is right that a wider range of appropriate national bodies should be heard, not only on the broader terms of a new programme, but also on the specific aspects of the programme of particular concern to them."
The possibility of a new national programme offered opportunities to Ireland in the 21st century, the Taoiseach said. He endorsed the need to develop greater flexibility in local partnership through schemes such as profit sharing.
However, he warned that, when it came to tax cuts, people might have to choose between "a straight trade off" between reduced class sizes for their children or shorter hospital waiting lists on the one hand, and reduced income tax bills on the other.
