Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Mar 1979

Vol. 313 No. 1

Private Members' Business. - Adjournment Debate: Post Office Dispute.

Mr. O'Donnell

Regrettably, I find it necessary to seek time on the Adjournment to focus attention on what has become now a national scandal. I refer to the continuing disruption of the postal and telecommunications system.

A fortnight ago we had a debate on this matter on the Adjournment when we appealed to the Minister, as the Minister responsible for maintaining the country's vital communications system, to take some initiative, some step, or make some gesture which would have the effect of restoring normal services. In the fortnight that has elapsed the situation has worsened. I referred on a previous occasion to the very severe disruption, inconvenience, hardship, and loss of business, indeed the manner in which the continued disruption of the postal and telecommunications services is affecting industry, commerce, business, tourism and so on.

In the past fortnight a new dimension has entered into the situation. I refer to the appalling hardship being suffered by hundreds of thousands of social welfare recipients. I am conscious that something like 100,000 old age pensioners will be expecting to receive their pension books in the next week or ten days. With the continuation of the present impasse, these unfortunate people, the poorest and least privileged section of our community, will be faced with very severe hardship. The situation has now reached the stage where it is nothing short of a national scandal. That it should be allowed to continue and the apparent failure of the Minister to take any initiative is absolutely incomprehensible.

In seeking permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment this evening I am hopeful that the Minister will accede to our appeal, putting it simply, to do something to break this deadlock and have normal services restored. I could outline at length the number of cases brought to my attention over the past couple of weeks of businesses being completely disrupted, of inconvenience being suffered, and I am very concerned at the appalling hardship being suffered by social welfare recipients. I have seen it in my own constituency in Limerick city in recent weeks when in very inclement weather these people have had to queue for long periods only to find that their social welfare payments have not arrived. They come across to my office but I cannot telephone the Department of Social Welfare because there is nobody there to respond to telephone calls.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the adverse effects of this prolonged dispute and disruption in the country's vital telecommunications and postal services. The whole country is waiting for the Minister to take some initiative in an endeavour to resolve this problem.

I do not wish to delay the House. My colleague, Deputy Cluskey, the Leader of the Labour Party, wishes to speak also and I will give way to him in a moment. The point I want to get across here this evening is that there is an obligation on the Minister to take some step now to bring to an end immediately this situation with which we have lived not merely in recent weeks but for over a year, when scarcely a day or a week passes that telephones are not working and there is disruption of telephone and postal services.

Again I want to emphasise the appalling hardship being suffered by social welfare recipients, the possible immense hardship that will be suffered by old age pensioners in the next few weeks because they will be unable to get their pension books. In the city of Limerick this coming weekend there is to be a world sporting event. At present teams from all over the world are arriving in Limerick, accompanied by press corps from various countries, some as far away as New Zealand. It will not be possible for them to send their reports back to their newspapers. I am sure that will give us a nice name abroad and will prove a good way of advertising our attractions for tourism and industry. I demand that the Minister take action immediately to restore this vital communication service.

Mr. Cluskey

I should like to thank Deputy O'Donnell for permitting me to speak during the time allotted to him. On three occasions I tried to raise this matter in the House as a matter of urgency but the Chair did not accept it as such. I tabled two questions on the Order Paper relating to the dispute, but as they are Nos. 119 and 200 they will not be reached for approximately two weeks. In those questions I requested the Taoiseach and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to meet the executive of the Post Office Workers' Union with a view to resolving this dispute. The Minister is the employer in this case and he cannot, as he has attempted to do over recent weeks, hide behind the view that it would not be the proper procedure to meet the executive.

In case the Minister might imply that I am seeking to gain political advantage, I should like to point out that I am asking the Minister to do something which I did when Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare. During the time there was a strike situation in the Department of Social Welfare and, although there were laid down procedures for dealing with such a dispute, I knew that if I waited to go through the normal channels unimaginable suffering would be inflicted on social welfare recipients. It was because of that that I agreed to meet immediately the executive of the organisation involved in that dispute and within one afternoon I had resolved the situation to everyone's satisfaction. Therefore, I am not asking the Minister to do something which I was not prepared to do myself when faced with a similar problem.

Undoubtedly, this strike is deteriorating. Two weeks ago there was a possibility that social welfare payments would be interfered with but that was overcome. However, because of the frustration of those involved in this strike at the attitude of the Minister, at his lack of concern and activity, the dispute is getting worse. One would imagine that the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and the Minister for Labour had gone out on strike in sympathy with the workers because they have not made any effort to resolve this serious dispute. While bearing in mind the position of social welfare recipients we must also consider the question of our international image, which has suffered severely in recent weeks.

At considerable expense we brought up to 100 Japanese businessmen here recently and their main concern was the fact that it was practically impossible to communicate with the outside world but it is also nearly impossible to contact any county within the country because of this dispute. The Minister should stop sitting on his dignity, cease hiding behind procedures and do what he was elected to do. He should resolve, or at least make an attempt to resolve this dispute. I will concede the minute remaining to me to Deputy Harte.

An Ceann Comhairle

I must now call on the Minister.

Mr. Cluskey

If I am not allowed to give Deputy Harte the final minute remaining I am surely entitled to continue.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Minister has but five minutes to conclude the debate.

Mr. Cluskey

He has six minutes at present.

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no point in splitting hairs.

Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (Mr. Faulkner)

By the time the Deputy has finished I will have only four minutes.

Mr. Cluskey

Any hairs the Chair splits are in favour of the other side of the House.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Chair has been very fair.

Mr. Faulkner

This is a deliberate attempt to deprive me of the time I am entitled to.

Mr. Cluskey

The Minister has had a number of weeks to do something about this dispute but he has not been so anxious to devote time to it.

Mr. Harte

I was anxious to put some details of the Fianna Fáil manifesto on the record of the House.

Mr. Faulkner

I should like, first of all, to express my regret to users of the Post Office services throughout the country for the continuing inconvenience and hardship caused by this dispute. I have had to do so now on a number of occasions in this House and on each occasion I have tried to explain why it is necessary to preserve the orderly procedures which are agreed with all the unions in the civil service for settling claims in regard to pay and conditions. It is of primary importance that the public should understand what is involved here. Deputy Cluskey suggested that we were too concerned about procedures, but I do not know what he means exactly by that. The procedures are there to protect the interests of the staff. If agreements are to be ignored and orderly methods of resolving pay problems are to be set aside, then there will be no settled procedures for any group in the civil service. I do not believe that anyone wants that, least of all the civil service unions.

All the procedures under the conciliation and arbitration scheme and the national pay agreement, to both of which the union is a party, are available to the union for the purpose of settling their pay claims. No obstacles are being placed in the union's way. I have repeatedly assured the union of my Department's readiness at all times to resume negotiations on the claims in accordance with the agreed procedures. I have also given an assurance that the Department will facilitate the union in every way possible in processing its claim quickly to a conclusion and I have undertaken that, if the union wishes to avail of independent arbitration, I will accept the findings of the arbitrator. Deputies will appreciate how difficult it is in these circumstances to understand why the union is continuing a strike which is unnecessary and which inflicts such difficulties and hardships on the community.

Mr. Harte

There was nothing in the Fianna Fáil manifesto about conciliation and arbitration. What was the Minister's stand in 1977?

Mr. Faulkner

There are also the attendant consequences for our economy and the jobs of other people. Deputy Cluskey suggested that I should negotiate with the union outside the conciliation and arbitration scheme with a view to settling the dispute. That suggestion is ill-considered and I am sure the Deputy is aware of that. Is the Deputy suggesting that the orderly industrial relations procedures should be abandoned?

Mr. Harte

The Minister and his party undertook in 1977 to examine that problem and do something about it but they did nothing.

Mr. Faulkner

Is Deputy Cluskey advocating that the Department and the Government should seek a settlement of the dispute without any regard to the consequences? If that is what is suggested, and it seems to me to be the only logical interpretation, I ask the Deputy to come out in the open and state his position clearly because the central issue involved here is whether there is to be a stable basis of industrial relations in the civil service or whether the agreements between the Minister for the Public Service and all the civil service staff associations, including the Post Office Workers' Union, are to be overturned. Let us be clear that, if that is done, there can be no going back.

I should like to sum up by repeating that the Department stand ready to resume negotiations immediately on the unions' claims in accordance with the provisions of the conciliation and arbitration scheme and the national pay agreement. I ask the union and the staff to accept that there must be a general commitment throughout the civil service to the use of the conciliation and arbitration scheme and the national pay agreement. I am sure it will be appreciated that any other approach would be harmful for the future of industrial relations in the public service. Nothing is to be gained by a continuation of this strike. Everybody in the community is the loser. Therefore, I again appeal to the union and to the staff to cease their action and to resume negotiations with a view to settling their claims as quickly as possible. In making this appeal, I wish to assure the staff of my interest in having their problems dealt with speedily and sympathetically and to emphasise again that my primary concern is to see a settlement of the union's claims on a basis which is fair to the staff and to the users of the Department's services

The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 11 a.m. on Thursday, 22 March 1979.