With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7 together.
As Deputies know, I have been in constant communication with the Industrial Relations Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions throughout this dispute in efforts to bring about a resumption of normal work and an end to the hardship being caused to the community and the damage being done to the economy. In the course of these contacts, congress put forward a number of proposals for a return to work. On each occasion, I accepted the proposals but, regrettably, the union did not.
In discussion with congress representatives, I gave the union, through congress, wide-ranging assurances in relation to their various claims, including an assurance that, when negotiations on the pay claims in dispute are resumed, the Department will be prepared to offer an increase of £8.25 a week in the maximum basic pay of the grades concerned. Other assurances included a doubling of service pay, new allowances for unsocial work, and a substantial advance of wages to ease hardship among union members. I believe that any responsible person would regard the assurances given as very reasonable. I asked the staff, in the public interest, to return to work and resume negotiations on the basis of these assurances which were given by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions as well as by myself. I regret that that appeal was not responded to.
Contact with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions was resumed last week and is continuing this week. The House can, of course, be assured that I will do everything possible, as I have done throughout, to bring the dispute to an end on a basis which is both fair to the staff and to the community as a whole.
I have had no request to meet representatives of the Post Office Workers' Union. As I have said, contact during the strike has been through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.