Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

----and now decisively rejected by the organised movement of working people, a union movement led in many instances from the ranks of the Tánaiste's own members who valiantly battled for him to try to convince workers of the merits of his attack on their wages and conditions, but who failed utterly. An overwhelming majority of workers stood up to the Government parties' threats - threats, incidentally, enthusiastically championed and broadcast by their friends in the media - and yet workers faced them down, which was an act of defiance that has served as a shot in the arm for all of their victims, including lone parents, disability payment recipients, home owners and pensioners, because public sector workers demonstrated that there are a lot more of them than there are Government Members. They debunked the myth that it is not possible to take on the Government. The reason for their defiance is simply that there is no more blood to be taken from that stone. How could it be otherwise when a majority of public sector workers who earn between €23,000 and €45,000 a year have endured a 22% pay cut and the Government wants to impose more on top of that?

See this speech in context