Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I was going to raise this matter under No. 2 because that is where it is referred to in the Order of Business. It would be helpful if a statement was made to the House detailing what arrangements are being put in place to protect emergency services next Tuesday. If the Government regards the strike as inevitable and if no action can be taken to prevent it, this House should be informed of the arrangements being made to facilitate the running of the House and to maintain a record of what is happening here. I appreciate that this is more relevant to item No. 2 than No. 1, but I regard it as unacceptable that the sovereign parliament of this country should be curtailed in properly conducting its business by any strike action. Adjournment debates should be permitted next Tuesday. Such debates are often the only mechanism for Opposition Deputies - and, indeed, on occasion, for backbench Government Deputies - to raise urgent local or national issues of public importance and to get a Government response to them. It is a negation of democracy that, if this strike does take place, the workings of this Parliament should grind to a halt or only function partially. On that particular matter we will be opposing the Order of Business. In the cataclysmic economic circumstances in which the State finds itself, I do not believe that this strike is helpful or can contribute to a resolution of our major economic or fiscal difficulties. The fact that this strike is taking place and the Government is essentially falling asleep on the job, is a damning indictment of the Government's incompetence.

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