Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I know the Deputy speaks disparagingly about the Haddington Road agreement, as if at that time we were not facing an existential threat to the very existence of our economy that required us to make very difficult decisions. I know the Deputy is disparaging in a disrespectful way, in my judgment, of the group of 27 trade unions who made a democratic decision to accept the proposals in Haddington Road and the negotiating skills of their leaders who negotiated the terms of Haddington Road agreement. I am mindful of that fact that on the day the Haddington Road agreement was concluded, before it was published and anybody saw the details of it, the Deputy was on the plinth denouncing it as a bad deal, sight unseen, of course. I do not have the figures on the saving on agency staff. We set out the projected savings for the HSE and every other agency and Department in terms of the Haddington Road process for 2014 in the Book of Estimates that was published. We will disaggregate them for the Deputy during the course of the year.