Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has resorted to name-calling. The only time his party's philosophy was ever employed in actually running anything was in the city of Liverpool. That ended up with the authorities running out of money and sacking public sector workers across the city. This that is the experience we have of the Deputy's policies being deployed.

I spoke to public sector workers and their representatives a year ago, opening the books, as all good employers would, to demonstrate the state of the public finances. I stated that in order not to have a dramatic reduction in front-line services, we needed to make further reductions on the payroll side. Public sector workers responded to that positively by democratic vote. One cannot have it both ways. The Deputy cannot herald the staff if they vote in a way with which he agrees, saying that is their democratic decision and that it must be respected, while disrespecting them if they vote in a way with which he does not agree on the basis of a belief that their vote is a result of harassment, bullying or other tactics.

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