The Government must consider price control of housing if pay restraint is to be sustained, the leader of the largest civil service union has warned.
The general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, Mr Blair Horan, has told his annual conference in Tralee: "If we can regulate other key sectors of the economy, why should one of the basic needs of all be left to the mercy of rampant, uncontrolled market forces?
Simply allowing market forces to exclude a whole category of young salaried employees cannot be justified." The CPSU president, Ms Teresa Dwyer, criticised the Government over its decentralisation proposals. She described the plan to move 10,000 Civil Service posts out of Dublin as "quite staggering". Traditionally, the CPSU had supported decentralisation, "which has combined the benefits of greater social and economic cohesion with allowing individual civil servants work nearer to their home town".
However, the new programme would require "full union involvement in the process . . . before firm and final decisions are made" on "numbers, departments and location". The time scale "must be voluntary" to ensure "staff aspirations for a proper career and promotion structure are adequately addressed, both in Dublin and around the country".
She said that "serious consideration must also be given to utilising the outer ring of Dublin for significant decentralisation, which will invigorate smaller towns while causing less disruption in terms of the need for staff to move location". She also warned that the new performance management system for the Civil Service would not be accepted until it accepted "upward feedback" from CPSU members.
The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness came in for sustained attack from delegates.
There were several calls for a review of the pay terms, and the general secretary, Mr Horan, assured members that the 19 per cent increase in real incomes would be honoured. If necessary, the CPSU would call on the ICTU to activate the review process.
Responding to the debate on the Programme, Mr Horan said: "If inflation eats into that figure, as far as I'm concerned it still has to be delivered on. This could be done by cuts in indirect taxes, by cuts in direct taxes or by additional pay increases."
On immigration, Ms Rosaleen Glacken said ethnic diversity would inevitably be reflected in recruitment to the Civil Service. She said it was "imperative that our union is ready and able to protect all our members in the context of their employment rights". She welcomed the new legislation against racial discrimination.