THE STATE could no longer afford its public sector pay bill, Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney said.

“Some €20 billion per year is not affordable and there is simply no getting away from that fact,’’ he said.

“We have either to cut jobs or cut pay. There is no ducking this issue, despite the understandable anger of many good public servants, who did not cause the crisis.’’ Mr Coveney said that the market was already forcing salary reductions and had forced 120,000 redundancies in the private sector in the past year.

“So the Government needs to do what is necessary in the public sector.’’

Mr Coveney quoted from an Irish Times editorial of January 28th, 1982, exactly 27 years ago.

“Let no-one underestimate how vital the quality of leadership is to the country in this hour of present danger. Life cannot continue in the spendthrift fashion of recent years.

“Unless the community is prepared to accept voluntarily, a cut in its standard of living, that cut will be imposed with considerably more vigour from without.

“A flourishing democracy requires that those who populate it take responsibility – individually and collectively – for decisions taken in its name.

“That major mistakes were made in the recent past is undeniable; that the community can now shrug off the responsibility for them by refusing to pay up is impossible; the slate cannot be wiped clean at a stroke. Will the country rise to such leadership?”

Mr Coveney remarked: “How true that is 27 years later, as we relive the same kind of challenges we faced then.’’

Sinn Féin economy spokesman Arthur Morgan asked how the Government could find billions to bail out banks and property developers, when there was not a brass farthing for schools or the elderly.

“There is not enough funding to hire midwives to allow them do their work properly. The midwife ratio should be one to every 25 births, but in the maternity unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the ratio is currently one midwife to every 48 births.”

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said that much had been made in and outside the House of the recent international coverage given to Ireland. Some, indeed, had used the commentary as a political stick.

“It has not been written with balance, but with malice in mind.”

Mr Gormley said that Ireland faced a challenge equal to the greatest the State had faced since its foundation some 90 years ago.

Minister of State for Agriculture Trevor Sargent said there must be support for the growers of fruit and vegetables.

“I am talking about the farmers who are still growing. I can document others, from Cork to Donegal to Dublin, and in between, who are no longer growing.

“In many cases, they have left their land uncultivated which is a tragedy not only for them and their families, but for all of us, in terms of food security,” he added.