IMPACT has welcomed the change to the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Act announced last week.

The FEMPI laws were first introduced in order to cut the public service pay bill in 2009. Last week, the Government announced its intention to remove Section 2B of the most recent Act, introduced as a limited contingency measure in 2013.

Last month the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, indicated his intention to begin the process of dismantling the legislation. He told the Dáil he would “open the books in the same open way as I did in the negotiations for Haddington Road and come to an orderly and, I hope, fair mechanism for unwinding the emergency provisions that were necessitated by the economic collapse”.

This followed comments by Minister Howlin in August, indicating his intention to hold negotiations with unions next year on the start of public service pay restoration. In an interview with the Irish Independent he warned that the pay cuts of recent years would not be restored all at once, but said he wanted talks with unions on the “unravelling” of pay cuts.

Prime Time

Responding to the changed legislation, RTE’s Prime Time broadcast a report about the possibility of pay restoration for public service workers and asked “Can the country afford it?"

IMPACT's communications officer, Niall Shanahan, appeared on the programme and took part in a studio debate with Patricia Callan of the Small Firms Association. You can watch the programme here. The Prime Time report commences at 18:26, and the studio discussion is from 23:31.



Related: IMPACT welcomes legislative changes to public service industrial relations