Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The advocation, as we heard earlier, of the status quo plus is not an option of any Government in this country for the foreseeable future. We require transformation agreements and they has been agreed in the public service agreement we have negotiated with trade unions across a range of sectors, including for health and disability services. The fiction being portrayed by Opposition party leaders is that we can maintain services on the basis of existing service delivery arrangements but that is not possible and, therefore, we need to be prepared to implement changes to the non-front-line delivery of services in as many areas as possible to protect to the greatest extent we can those who require services. The status quo plus is not an option but it is being advocated by the Opposition because that is a nice, handy way of suggesting to the public how politics can run in this country. Unfortunately, it is not politics as usual.

See this speech in context