Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——with competitiveness issues in the interests of maintaining workers in employment, which is also a critical workers' right. We must consider these matters in a sensible way.

There is no major ideological chasm between us in respecting the rights of workers, which is something to which I adhere. What we need to do is ensure this is addressed in a context that does not affect competitiveness or makes less likely that we will have more rather than fewer workers in employment. We must also maintain standards. I have no problem with any of this. It is something to which I subscribe. I was formerly a Minister for Labour.

Dialogue is taking place within social partnership. We will do anything we can to progress this issue and to provide reassurance on these matters. They are issues, at a national level, that must be considered with others in the Parliament during the coming months. Of course, we should do this. We must be helpful, open and co-operative in these matters. The contention was made that if one voted "Yes" to the Lisbon treaty one would be adopting a construct; that there is no such thing as a social market or social Europe and the European Union is hostile to workers' rights. We all know that the genesis of much of the most progressive social legislation in our employment legislation originated from the European Union and the Commission.

It was the late Paddy Hillery who, through the first Commission on Social Affairs, introduced equal treatment and equal rights directives which have been transposed not alone into Irish law but European law. This is an area where the European Union has differentiated itself from the neo-liberal market economics of other major trading blocs in the world. We are seeking all the time to strike this balance, not because we are trying to dilute its importance but because we want to ensure that the context within which workers' rights are exercised is an economy that will provide employment and a more fulfilled life for workers. It is a difficult balance and is a matter of judgment and of changing circumstance.

I take the point that this is not an exact science. In making these I am not suggesting that one is not committed to inclusion and to dealing with reassurances in this area. We need to do so with that context in mind. For this reason, and if, as Deputy Costello stated, I am to proceed in good faith on these matters, which is my intention, I do not believe this should be an issue between us.

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