John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The unions are representing the workers, which is important and must be respected. The Minister has told the committee the subvention will be increased. One does not need to be an expert to know the increase will not be sufficient to meet what the unions feel it should be.

The unions want the subvention to be increased to €170 million and they need it done yesterday. How will this work? Could this be done in stages? In 2008, the economy collapsed and there were no choices at that stage because the country was bankrupt. However, there are choices now. If they were in the shoes of the Minister of Finance, how would they square the circle to instantly increase the subvention to the level they feel is needed? We all agree it needs to be increased but everybody wants everything to be restored. How can a pathway be found in view of the fact that there needs to be an organised and structured way to do this in order that the country will not descend into chaos?