Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Government made an agreement with the social partners last September, which could not be implemented. It then had further talks with them in January where they agreed to a €2 billion adjustment in the public finances but the Government walked out and introduced the levy unilaterally, which caused huge anger and resentment among many working people. The Taoiseach then made a third attempt recently to reconvene the social partnership talks, which have collapsed. It looks like he will be the first Taoiseach in 22 years not to conclude a social partnership agreement with the trade unions and employers and this is in circumstances where there seems to be remarkable common ground between the ICTU and IBEC, in particular, on key issues such as the need to sustain employment, about which we heard from Turlough O'Sullivan last Friday. Is it not the case that the Government has collapsed the social partnership process, it is over and however he may try to put it back on life support or try to have further meetings to maintain the fiction that social partnership is continuing, nothing of any real significance will be agreed in the process?

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