Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was not the question I asked. If we are in a situation, as we are at the moment, where €10 billion extra has gone out of the economy to pay for oil and gas and we have no control over that, and it is gone and is not in the hands of employers or in the hands of the Government, and if the Government intervenes as it did yesterday to try to cushion the impact on workers, is it not legitimate for that to be reflected in lower pay settlements in this time of crisis? That is the question I am asking. It is not about this long-term theory that people say that many jobs will be lost. It is just that, at the moment, with very flat demand and employers like everyone else having big challenges, is the Government intervention not legitimate and does it not modify the need for pay increases during this crisis, even though we have the ambition to move as quickly as is sustainable to the higher levels? That is the question.