Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

The education budget was maintained in bad times and good, because the people were willing to give up their taxation to education. I have never known a Minister for Education who did not fight like a tiger for his or her money and get a fair amount. All Governments paid great credence to education and put great faith in it.

The various arrangements under the first partnership agreement, the Programme for National Recovery, were agreed in 1988. While the programmes went through various colourful names and became more embellished as they went on, they were very good programmes. It was a major achievement that people in trade unions, agriculture, women's groups, etc., could come together and hammer out an agreement in which all promised and undertook to work well together.

When I outline how it works to people, they ask if it means there are no strikes. As all Members know, it does not and when one considers the matter, that is correct. One cannot nullify and neuter all the trade unions and no one tried to do so. Nowadays, strikes are concerned with fair issues like better wages. I remember there were some strikes in CIE which concerned such issues. Iarnród Éireann relied too much on overtime and the workers did not receive a decent basic wage on a five day week. Consequently, the problem was worked on and was resolved satisfactorily.

Progress on renewing these arrangements is currently on hold. The Taoiseach has given reassurances to SIPTU, which constitutes 40% of the entire trade union movement's membership. SIPTU is rightly worried about a "race to the bottom", to use a recent phrase. It is worried about migrant labour and the displacement of jobs and employment. It has every right to be worried about these matters. Competitiveness is an enormously important part of the Lisbon Agenda. However, competitiveness does not or should not mean there is to be a scaling back of decent regard for workers or decent wages. I have never felt this was the kind of competitiveness that we should be engaging in or striving towards.

When I was Minister for Public Enterprise, there was a huge emphasis in all the semi-State companies on trade unions. I always believed that, if one explained the circumstances, laid out one's stall and talked matters through, one could bring trade unions on board. I am a great believer in talking and engaging in discourse with people at various levels of employment. I hope that the assurances the Taoiseach will provide to SIPTU and the other unions will allay their fears about a new three-year programme. There is no doubt that many good activities will depend on having this arrangement in place.

It has been 18 years since the partnership process started and people ask whether it is time to have an open marketplace. We should wait to determine what it will be like. Be it red clawed socialism or something else, the consensus arrangements cannot be beaten if they can be worked through. Mr. Jack O'Connor has been entirely fair in this matter and has warned the trade unions that they must get a proper——