Shane Ross (Independent)

I will not say it then. This brings me to the health issue raised by Senator O'Toole. It is a serious issue, which should be debated in this House. I fundamentally disagree with the Senator about taking issues such as this away from this House or from democratic institutions. It may be a matter of regret when Ministers want to go on solo runs. The idea that vital policy issues should not be dealt with by politicians is completely anathema to the democratic process. There is a danger that if we go down that road we will hand more power to Senator O'Toole's friends in the trade unions. Social partnership will take over and we will hand that to them, and they will make decisions they are already making on an issue which has previously been raised in this House, namely benchmarking. On that, while not wishing to re-open the issue, it is absurd for a Senator to maintain it only costs €310 million. That is inaccurate and is complete nonsense. It is a vast sum of money—