The chairman of the Committee on Social, Family and Community Affairs has queried the use of "professional spin-doctors" by a trade union.
Mr Noel Ahern (FF) told a meeting of the committee yesterday that he was "amazed and amused" that a senior union executive was allowed to "spend a fortune" of the workers' money on a special spindoctoring firm.
Mr Ahern was referring to the regional secretary of the ATGWU, Mr Mick O'Reilly, who had been mentioned by the vice-chairman of the committee, Mr Tommy Broughan (Labour). He said Mr O'Reilly had called for the review mechanism in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to be utilised immediately.
Contacted by The Irish Times yesterday, Mr O'Reilly said Mr Ahern's remarks indicated to him that "maybe we are being effective".
Mr Ahern said at the committee meeting that he would love to be a member of the trade union mentioned by Mr Broughan to query "how that union executive can spend so much money on professional spin-doctors of the unions' subs, engaged in whatever campaign that individual you mentioned is engaged in. He has never been for any national wage agreement and seems to be determined to bring it down.
"I don't know what his agenda or game is but it amazes me how his union members are allowing him to spend a fortune."
Mr O'Reilly told The Irish Times that the union's policies were agreed and voted on by the members. The ATGWU was in favour of free collective bargaining, and historically the PPF was the only agreement on which the membership rejected the executive's recommendation. The executive recommended against the PPF but union members voted to accept it.
At the committee meeting Mr Ahern said that social welfare recipients, who did not benefit from tax concessions, "will have to be compensated in the next Budget for what is happening this year".
He said pensioners were among those getting far above the inflation rate, but others on social welfare would have to be compensated. However, he pointed out that given the way the system operated, he doubted they would get the compensation before the next Budget.
After a brief argument over inflation, the meeting agreed to call on the Minister for Social, Family and Community Affairs, Mr Ahern, to come before the committee before the end of the month if possible, to see what he planned to do to assist those on social welfare.
Mr Broughan, a TD for Dublin North East, said the Minister should prepare a special anti-inflation package for social welfare recipients. "For the first time for perhaps 20 years, the increases given in the Budget from 5.2 to 5.7 per cent are surpassed by inflation rate," he said, and all social welfare recipients were now faced with falling real incomes.
Mr John Browne (FG, Carlow-Kilkenny) said there was an awful difference between someone on £35,000 a year worrying about how inflation would affect them and someone on £70, &80 or £90 a week who was really badly off.
The chairman said the Government could only do so much and was giving direction. "The real watchdog of these things is the consumer," he added. "Some businesses out there have got too damn greedy and are trying to become millionaires overnight".
Mr Paul McGrath (FG, Westmeath) said rents on local authority houses were increased based on an increase in social welfare payments. The rents were not taken into account when calculating inflation. Mr Ahern said there were a lot of factors in the Consumer Price Index which did not affect social welfare recipients.
Senator Therese Ridge (FG) called for a review of the £100 million a year rental subsidy, which was causing "enormous" problems. The current system meant they were just throwing the money away.
She believed it should be transferred from the health boards to the Department of the Environment and through it people could be housed directly.
