Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I put it to the Taoiseach that it is a sham to pretend there is such a thing as ongoing partnership between the Government and the trade union movement in current circumstances, when the Government accedes to the diktats of the EU, IMF and ECB with regard to a range of issues which have detrimental effects on the lives and living standards of working people, including those represented by trade unions, and when the Government unilaterally decides to hammer pension rights and wages and privatise semi-State bodies to pay off speculating bondholders and bankers. Can the Taoiseach say there is, in any sense, a dialogue between the Government and the representatives of workers, when all these decisions are made and imposed?

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