The Minister recently attempted to defend the Government's benchmarking agreement in the Irish Independent. He may as well have stood on a butter box on the corner of St. Stephen's Green with a megaphone shouting, "money for old rope". The former president of the ICTU said some time ago that the agreement was the equivalent to withdrawing money from an ATM. The Minister's attempted defence has only served to underline the correctness of Fine Gael's position on the issue.