Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his overview. While I welcome the opportunity to discuss social partnership, I would prefer if the House was discussing worthwhile legislation, although other Senators might respond to that comment with harsh words. As the Minister of State indicated, this is a useful discussion. I would welcome further discussion of social partnership in the House in due course, perhaps when an agreement is concluded, as I hope will be the case.

Social partnership has served this country well since the Programme for National Recovery was signed in 1987. On foot of gross economic mismanagement in the late 1970s and early 1980s——