{"id":658674,"date":"2026-10-18T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658674\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:32:08","slug":"taoiseach-rejects-michael-olearys-view-that-he-would-buckle-to-public-sector-unions-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658674\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach rejects Michael O\u2019Leary\u2019s view that he would \u2018buckle\u2019 to public sector unions \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has rejected suggestions by Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary<\/a> that he would \u201cbuckle\u201d and \u201croll over\u201d to the public sector trade unions, and insisted that productivity increases would be part of any new pay deal with the unions.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Fianna F\u00e1il Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown Co Kildare on Sunday, the Taoiseach responded to O\u2019Leary\u2019s comments in this morning\u2019s Business Post by affirming his support for public services, but also stressing productivity would have to be part of any new agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in the public service very strongly,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s essential in any civilised democracy that we have a strong public service to deliver services to people,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously there has to be value for money, there has to be productivity and all of that, and that has always been our position. As someone who is experienced in politics, that\u2019s my approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin declined to be drawn on whether he would be open to a lower percentage increase for higher-paid public servants with a higher percentage increase for lower-paid workers, rather than an across-the-board percentage increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m open to an agreement that is affordable, that can advance productivity within the public service, that would look after low-paid workers \u2013 but again, let\u2019s allow the negotiations to start. It\u2019s not for me to be getting into the details or precise preferences about the shape of any agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How Ireland\u2019s first national public sector strike in 17 years left unions strong and Jack Chambers \u2018scrambling\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Pressed further, the Taoiseach said all such issues would be discussed with the unions first. <\/p>\n

Martin also said that previous pay agreements had sought to target lower-paid workers more for bigger increases, but that the Government side would have to hear from the unions on what their proposals were. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into specifics in terms of where all that lands, but we\u2019ve always had a view to protect lower-paid workers within the public service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Talks between the unions and the Government are due to get under way at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a> on Monday morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the fact that a process has been agreed between the unions and the Government side,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat now needs to happen is for the negotiations to take place, and we can have a resolution that manifests itself in a new pay agreement, similar to the ones we\u2019ve already negotiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s public sector strike called off after unions and Government agree on talksOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach declined to discuss suggestions that the \u20ac1.2 billion allocated to pay for a new deal in the recent budget could be increased by dipping into a \u20ac1.6 billion contingency fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to go into what may transpire over the course of the negotiations … Nothing is decided, no precise figures have even been mentioned yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has rejected suggestions by Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary that he would \u201cbuckle\u201d and \u201croll over\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-658674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}