Deputy
Speaker, you are hitting the core of the challenge that all of us have. On the one hand, by the time you start that round of negotiations, you already have money in the pockets of public servants as it were arising from the agreements that have been reached in the past rounds of negotiations. Already that is a problem.
We have decided, amongst other things, to start as early as now to engage with organized labour at all levels, both at a political level and at chamber level. I should point out that we are facing quite difficult issues at the moment to reach consensus at that level. In other words, we are at a point where the state has this and that problem. Let's open up and be genuine about it. Then we can start dealing with the figures. This is how we are going to try and approach it. As I say, it won't include taking money that is already in the pockets of civil
servants but it is rather focusing on the future to say
... you'll realize that the last two rounds of negotiations went far beyond what could have been affordable at the time with regard to the coffers of the state. That is one of the things that we will need to avoid this time around. Starting early is important.