Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is no national agreement and, therefore, there is nothing to stop any group of workers serving a pay claim. How will those issues be dealt with between now and when the Taoiseach's wish for a national agreement comes home, if it ever does? Will a system of arbitration be put in place and how will individual disputes be resolved? Will we continue to see a free-for-all in industrial relations?

I appreciate we have not been here for the best part of a quarter of a century because there has been centralised bargaining. Even in the days when there was no national agreement before 1987, there were centralised agreements in the public sector. There has been a long period since we have been in a position of having no agreement, framework or rules, effectively, governing the industrial relations climate in the country.

Mr. Mulvey, who is responsible for the Labour Relations Commission, is exercised about what will happen but what is the Government's view? What is to be put in place?

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