asked the Minister for Finance whether he has received a request from the Civil Service Joint Committee to receive a deputation to discuss the question of the cost-of-living bonus, and if he will state when he will receive the deputation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Civil Service Cost-of-Living Bonus.
I have considered the request referred to, and have informed the Committee that I am unable to receive the deputation proposed, as the question of the cost of living is a matter of general Service interest and, as such, is appropriate for discussion at the Civil Service Representative Council by all classes in the Service who desire to represent their views. Facilities can be afforded at any time for such discussion.
Might I ask whether, in view of the Minister's statement that this matter is one of general Civil Service interest, he will arrange to receive a deputation from bodies who are not members of the Civil Service Representative Council.
No.
Do I understand that although there are approximately 20,000 civil servants in the Free State, of which only 1,000 are members of the Civil Service Representative Council, the Minister proposes to receive no representations on behalf of 19,000 civil servants, but prefers to accept the view of 1,000 on behalf of 19,000?
I propose to accept the views of civil servants through the properly recognised channel—the Civil Service Representative Council.
Is the Minister aware that, at least, one organisation in the Civil Service—the Post Office Workers Union—a body whose membership aggregates more than the combined membership of the other organisations is not a member of the Civil Service Representative Council, and does he propose to exclude that body from consideration unless it is prepared to go into the Civil Service Representative Council, which it has persistently opposed for the past nine years, at some portion of that time with the Minister's benediction.
Question 9.
Can I have an answer to that question? It affects 19,000 civil servants and the silence of the Minister is not an answer to it.
There are not 19,000 civil servants in the Postal Union.
I did not say that. What I do say is that the Minister is refusing to receive representations from large sections of the Civil Service, and that he proposes to hear minority views instead of majority views.
Representation on the Representative Council is open to every class in the Civil Service.
This body—the Civil Service Representative Council, so called—has been studiously boycotted by the overwhelming majority of the Civil Service for the past nine years because it is a body set up not at the request of the Civil Service but in defiance of the wishes of the Civil Service, as the Minister well knew in other days.
It is not correct to say that the Civil Service Representative Council has been studiously boycotted for the past nine years by the majority of the Civil Service.