Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

----the tides of economic fortune will come in and we will not have to do anything but hold our breath and stand on the shore. We were in a crisis. We had no money and the people who were lending us money put conditions on it. Like any good employer, I talked in an open fashion to public sector unions and the employees of the public sector and asked them to negotiate a deal with me. They did. I would not disparage their negotiators or members like Deputy Boyd Barrett did-----