Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Coming back to the point made by Deputy Higgins, we were having this debate last night, during the Minister's enforced absence, with the Minister of State, Deputy Power, about why to excise the word "sustainable". My colleague Deputy Burton explained at some length that, apart from any other consideration, we were doing it to foster unity between the Government partners as the minor partner would want "sustainable" included in the amendment. The Minister seemed to be in favour of this last week. Why has it fallen out?

The Minister of State, Deputy Power, advanced a somewhat Jesuitical explanation that the Government would require flexibility in certain circumstances and that the term "sustainable" was equivalent to permanence and some other arguments that were above my head. I thought the word "sustainable" has an understandable meaning. At the time Deputy Gogarty was in the Chamber and he noticeably perked up when he heard the word. He saw it as a reason for continuing to support the Bill.

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