Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

A lot of the workers will have a future in which they will not be able to pay their mortgages or keep their kids in college. Essentially, they are the ones who are being asked to foot the bill. They are being asked to take an unacceptable reduction in their quality of life and living standards. I do not believe that anybody goes out on strike intentionally. People think about it long and hard and it is a last resort for workers and trade unions as there is a cost to the trade union side also. I do not see this strike being resolved unless there is an intervention. I am not saying that the Minister should get in and negotiate directly as I do not believe that would be appropriate. There are good mechanisms there. This will not be resolved, however, unless there is an intervention around the income. It is not going to be just purely down to savings and efficiencies. If there were savings and efficiencies to be made of the magnitude referred to by the Minister then they would have been made by now.