Shane Ross (Independent)

I am rather struck by the unanimous view inherent in the use of a phrase used by Senator Brady, which ought to be punctured before it is allowed to go any further. The phrase is used by politicians and economists and those reading scripts – which is against the rules – in this House from time to time. It is the mantra that social partnership is the basis of our economic boom. There is absolutely no evidence for this and I challenge anyone to produce such evidence. That mantra has gained ground because social partnership and the economic boom have coincided. It is like saying that when the sun rises in the morning, we have a particularly good economy.

It is not necessarily true that social partnership has been the basis of our economic boom. The evidence I would point to is that social partnership agreements had very little to do with that boom. However, Government policy, as practised by the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil, and indeed by Fine Gael and Labour when they were in office, had a great deal to do with it. Government policy, and a low corporate tax rate, has fostered a large number of multinationals in this country which are undoubtedly one of the bases of the economic boom.

I point out to those who use this mantra that the people who brought so much foreign investment, employment and a buzz into our economy are not practitioners of social partnership. Let us not accept this. Senator Brady may be correct in what he says and there may be an element of truth in it but let us not state it as proven fact, as it is not, never was and never will be. It is unprovable.

I welcome Fine Gael's late conversion through this particular motion. Some of us have been belly-aching ad nauseum about benchmarking ever since the idea was introduced.