Cathaoirleach Richard Truell had to bang the table to restore order at Monday morning's meeting of the Ballybay-Clones Municipal District in Clones, after a passing mention of the public sector strike turned into a shouting match between two councillors.
According to the Anglo-Celt's report from the chamber, the row began when Cllr Truell remarked that he was confident the dispute "should be solved today or tomorrow". It came on the same day formal pay talks between the Government and public sector unions opened at the Workplace Relations Commission in Dublin.
"The Government falls short"
Sinn Féin's Sinéad Flynn responded: "If the Government would listen to the unions!" The chair replied that the unions had to listen to the Government too.
Fine Gael's Seán Gilliland said the unions had been invited to engage with the Government, and pointed out that money for pay agreements had been set aside in the Budget. Cllr Flynn said the two would "have to agree to disagree", adding: "The Government falls short."
Cllr Gilliland then turned to Sinn Féin's position north of the border. "Sinn Fein are an all-island party. You can't speak out of the two sides of your mouth," he said, noting that while there was a pay agreement in place in the Republic, the matter had still not been sorted out in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin's Pat Treanor told him he would "want to talk to his friends in the DUP", and said Cllr Gilliland was "obviously taking the side of the Government, when it was the workers who had to go out on strike". He said conditions should not be set in advance and that the issue went back to last June, when the previous pay deal expired.
Cllr Flynn said she had never seen "the amount of discontent in the country", with people unable to afford fuel for their cars or food for the table, and told her Fine Gael colleague to "engage your brain before your mouth". Cllr Gilliland said he was only going on Sinn Féin's all-island record.
Chair was on the picket line himself
Cllr Truell, who works for the HSE, told the meeting he had joined last Wednesday's strike. "I was on the picket line myself, and not as a public representative. I wasn't there to get my photo taken," he said, adding that he pays into a union but that "the unions aren't innocent either". He then closed what he called a "good discussion" and moved the meeting on.
Where the dispute stands
More than 300,000 public sector workers, including teachers, nurses and council staff, walked out for 24 hours last Wednesday, closing schools and cancelling hospital appointments across Monaghan and the rest of the country. A second strike planned for this Wednesday, 21 October, was suspended by unions on Friday to allow talks to proceed.
RTÉ reported on Monday evening that the first day of talks at the WRC ended after about five hours, with both sides due back on Tuesday morning. Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said unions would listen to the Government on productivity, but that many workers "have nothing more to give". A work-to-rule remains in place across the public sector, so some services may still be affected while the talks go on.
