Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach is not going to implement it the public sector. The first rounds of it are due next September and October and he has deferred that. There is no point in saying there is a pay agreement; the reality is it does not exist.

Will the Taoiseach seek agreement with the social partners on public sector employment levels? Will there be agreement with the social partners when Mr. McCarthy and an bord snip reports? Will there be agreement with the social partners on private sector pensions? The Minister for Social and Family Affairs rushed to the House with legislation last week that does not appear to have been agreed with anybody. Will there be agreement with the social partners on that?

Paying lip service to the theory of social partnership is no substitute for having a social partnership agreement. I do not see the heads of any agreement either from what the Taoiseach has said in response to these questions today or in the reports that have been widely publicised in the media about the outcome of the talks that have been ongoing for the past couple of weeks.

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