Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I, too, commend Deputy Penrose on his work as Minister of State and his long service to the Labour Party. I commend his action to other Labour Party Ministers at this time.

I have two questions. We applied through the Whips to get more time to debate the cuts in capital programmes that were announced last week. Will the Taoiseach encourage his Whip to state whether more time can be allocated to debate this issue? The programme for Government contains a commitment to provide for the right to collective bargaining. When will this legislation be introduced? This issue arose during earlier questions. Without such protections trade unions cannot act as they need to in order to protect terms and conditions of employment and resist the downward pressure on wages.

See this speech in context