Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Towards 2016 document which was devised some years ago was a ten-year framework which set out very challenging objectives for everyone in social partnership. The economic crisis that has enveloped every country around us clearly means that many of those objectives have to be modified or prioritised because they were based on a time when the foreseeable future was far less uncertain than now. That framework agreement remains in place.

I do not underestimate the level of disappointment about last week's outcome. There are issues, however, to which we will all need to return at some stage and in my opinion this is always sooner rather than later. It will be a question of how to allocate resources in order to maintain services for our people against a background of much tighter and straitened financial circumstances, of how to use such resources to the greatest effect. We are still going to have to find a way to deal with the issues being discussed last week because otherwise we put at risk the ability of the system to deliver to the people to the best possible effect, given the available resources.

From my point of view, it is unfortunate that an agreement was not possible. We had to provide for permanent reductions. There is a serious structural deficit that has to be addressed and it is about giving confidence to all sections of the community. There is wide acceptance by all sections of the community that we are all in a position where we have to cut our cloth to the current measure. We would do a disservice to everybody, including people who depend on public services, were we not to take the necessary decisions now to address the fundamental unsustainability of the current position.

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