Tánaiste Mary Coughlan criticised next Tuesday’s public sector strike in the Dail today.
Speaking on the Order of Business, she said the Government did not feel “the withdrawal of will be constructive or add in any way to the discussions that are currently ongoing between the Government, employers and public service unions’’.
Ms Coughlan said there was still time to allow the discussions to continue to take place.
Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter said that if the Government regarded the strike as inevitable, and if no action could be taken to prevent it, the House should be informed of the arrangements being made to facilitate the running of the Dail next Tuesday.
“The fact that this strike is taking place and the Government is essentially falling asleep on the job, is a damning indictment of the Government’s incompetence,’’ he added.
Opposition parties challenged a vote today’s Order of Business and criticised the absence of motions on the adjournment, whereby issues of current importance could be raised with ministers, would not be on Tuesday’s schedule.
The Government won the division by 64 votes to 54.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the State was just a few days away from a major strike.
“In the past number of days, I have asked the Taoiseach what action the Government is taking to avert that strike,’’ he added.
“I have urged him and his Ministers to seriously engage in discussions and negotiations to try to avert the strike, which will close every school, reduce hospitals to merely a Christmas Day level of service and which will have every public office in the country closed.’’
He said there was nothing in today’s Dail order paper indicating that a Minister would come into the House to explain what was being done to try to avert the dispute. Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghin O Caolain said his party’s TDs would not pass Tuesday’s picket at Leinster House.