Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the Taoiseach's reply. There is now a view that this should be reconstituted and I look forward to that happening. I strongly agree with the point made by Deputy Martin. There are very significant issues at present that require a strategic approach. Obviously one of them is the next round of public sector pay. I raise public sector pay as an issue because I believe it must be linked to the quality of public services. One always considers pay, more numbers and additional services as demands on the same pot of money, so we must have a strategic approach to that and NESC has advised usefully on it in the past. Clearly, the Brexit issue requires a strategic sounding board for the Government. The important challenges the country will face could do with the sounding board of expertise which NESC has traditionally provided.

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