Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, and commend his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, for his excellent contribution to the debate. Social partnership is one of the great legacies of former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. In 1986, while Fianna Fáil was in opposition, the party's Front Bench was approached by members of the trade union movement who proposed the introduction of a social partnership type framework for national understanding. On its return to Government in 1987, the party implemented this proposal. The lesson Fine Gael and the Labour Party should learn from this is that if they intend to form a Government, it would be worthwhile to formulate policies rather than engage in personal attacks on individual Ministers or projects.