Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is nearly 48 hours since the public service pay agreement was announced, but Members still do not have a copy of the agreement and in many respects are handicapped in commenting in a fully informed way on it in the absence of its circulation. At approximately 4.15 p.m. today the Labour Relations Commission stated it was still organising the putting together of the document. Will the Taoiseach indicate when he expects it to be published? Will he ensure a copy will be circulated to every Member?

On a separate matter, one of the great difficulties emerging concerns the extraordinary price of health insurance. Without question, there have been price hikes in the past while and the cost of some health insurance plans has gone up by almost 60%. Many families are in extraordinary difficulty in this respect. The centre is no longer holding in terms of either the public sector and health insurance or the private sector and health insurance.

See this speech in context