asked the Minister for the Public Service the plans, if any, to improve industrial relations in the public service.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Public Service Industrial Relations.
29.
As the Deputy is aware, good industrial relations are ultimately based on mutual understanding and trust between managements and unions. Central to this trust must be knowledge that each side will honour agreements freely entered into and that efficient procedures are agreed for resolving fairly and speedily the problems which will inevitably arise from time to time.
Procedure for the orderly resolution of disputes have been agreed with unions representing the vast majority of employees in the public service and the Government are committed to reviewing and updating these procedures regularly.
Procedures for the orderly resolution of disputes must of necessity place some constraints on freedom of action by individuals, managements, unions and the Government themselves. The Government and indeed the vast majority of unions have been prepared to accept these constraints as the price which must be paid for good industrial relations.
In recent times some groups have displayed an anti-social and, indeed, unacceptable attitude in that they will accept the advantages of the system but refuse to be bound by any of the constraints. If the Government were to condone this approach it would inevitably lead to the disintegration of the orderly process of resolution of claims.
The Government will continue to make any necessary changes in procedures that can be agreed with the unions but, in the common interest, they cannot abandon those procedures.
Have any submission been made by the Department of the Public Service to the Commission on Industrial Relations established by the Minister for Labour?
I assume there have been consultations.
(Interruptions.)
Surely the Minister should have that information?
If the Deputy puts down a question in that regard I will give him an answer. That is what questions are for.
What are Ministers for?
To answer the questions.
To know the answers.
I have given the Deputy the answer. The question asked the Minister for the Public Service the plans, if any, to improve industrial relations in the public service and I have given the reply.
The Minister of State is in charge of the Department and surely he knows the submission. Surely the submission was shown to the Minister before it went in?
If the Deputy will put down a question I will give him an answer.
This is absolute discourtesy to a Member of this House.
Question No. 30. We must pass on.
This is a disgrace. The Minister knows the answer and he will not give it.
The Minister of State said that the Government were committed to reviewing and updating the industrial relations machinery in regard to the public service. Can he tell the House when the industrial relations machinery was last updated and in what regard?
Modifications have taken place in the schemes on numerous occasions. They have to go through elaborate proceedings to be agreed with the unions and so forth.
Can the Minister give a recent example of a positive change in industrial relations machinery?
I do not have that information here. If the Deputy asks a specific question about what modifications were made I will give him the answer.
The Chair would like to help Deputies but I cannot condone questions which do not arise relevantly from the basic question.
Is the Minister aware that 95 per cent of the work of his Department relates to industrial relations in the public sector? The information made available here by him in relation to those questions shows, to say the least, that he is totally unaware of what is happening in his Department.
(Interruptions.)
(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Minister agree that, if certain procedures which are available for the settlement of disputes have broken down and are seen not to have worked, it is time those were changed and that the Minister took some action to have them changed?
I would not accept that they have broken down. In the great majority of cases the existing procedures have been acceptable to both sides.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is it not a fact that in one particular Department since last Christmas there have been two major disputes? The dispute which took place at Christmas was seen to be the fault of the Department. Does that not show that in that Department industrial relations are non-existent and that the procedures are outdated?
The unions and staff associations involved are working the machinery and are quite satisfied with it.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Minister of State is the only one who is because the general public are not.
The unions and the staff associations are operating the system every day.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Minister says they are not. There is a strike crippling the country at the moment because the unions will not accept the present procedure.
In view of the Minister's unsatisfactory answer, I would like to raise the matter on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy.