Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish the talks well and hope they succeed in putting in place the seventh successive social partnership talks. If any of us asked a member of the public what he or she understood by social partnership I am not sure what the answer would be. It would depend on the individual, but the majority of people would understand it to be a process to secure a wage agreement. Over the years the core negotiations took place around wage agreements and the increases to be agreed by the social partners. Were it not for these agreements we would not have had the industrial peace we have enjoyed, one of the greatest things the process has produced apart from the wage increases that have accrued to various groups.

This peace has been particularly valuable in the major service areas. In the days when various providers of services to industry or the public at large — particularly power, communications or transport services — threatened to strike everybody feared the consequences. Efforts were made by various bodies on behalf of industrialists or the Government to stave off ensuing crises. We have thankfully moved away from that situation, at least in some respects.

Senator O'Toole described the location and set-up of the talks, the employers and business representatives on one side and trade unions on the other. On the sidelines are the farmers and the voluntary groups but, while they are well represented, the powerhouse always has been and will remain the first two groups. Initially, as many speakers have said, the aim was to keep the State solvent. Then the focus progressed to discussions about jobs and employment which were also very successful. Whether people acknowledge it, however, we have an impending jobs crisis. We no longer seem to be able to compete in certain areas, such as ordinary manufacturing, in which we have done so well over the years, producing goods for export and creating jobs. Employers and business people will raise that and use it to intimidate other groups in the talks.

Many towns have lost flagship employers which had been there for decades. For example, Ballinasloe, where I worked for 25 years, lost AT Cross. A task force promised that all the local and State agencies would combine to redress it but nothing has happened. Then Square D shut down with the loss of another 400 to 500 jobs in the town. Subsequently, Dubarry shoemakers, a long-established, traditional industry in Ballinasloe shed jobs owing, we were told, to a lack of competitiveness. In total 1,100 jobs were lost in one town over five or six years and all we have received is a promise of 125 high-tech manufacturing jobs in a medicare company from Japan. They are a different type of job but very welcome nonetheless as a new beginning for Ballinasloe.

Farming groups at the talks will highlight many issues concerning rural Ireland. Since their involvement as partners in these talks there has been a major decline in the numbers involved in farming and in the value and quantity of exports from this country. Until approximately ten years ago agriculture was our primary industry and export earner. Nowadays full-time commercial farming is practically dying on its feet and there has been no Government response to it whatever. I do not know why representatives of farming, until recently our primary industry, do not demand that we retain it. They seem no longer to be the strong voice of a powerful lobby group that could demand a response from Government and hold a relevant Minister accountable. Successive Ministers for Agriculture and Food in this Administration over the past ten years have outrageously failed to protect farming in Ireland. They failed to halt the decline in farm incomes, which are below the average industrial wage and falling further behind.

The value of our exports is declining because the numbers leaving agriculture have caused volumes to decrease. I wish the Government would acknowledge the numbers turning their backs on agriculture and who seek steady jobs in manufacturing or in construction, our only major growth industry in terms of employment. In the interest of the many people who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, I hope the sector will continue to prosper, although some would doubt its capacity to grow or retain current levels of employment.

Why, despite the undertakings given in the last agreement to voluntary and social groups, has the issue of affordable housing fallen flat? The Government made repeated commitments but the sad reality is that practicalities have not been delivered. Affordable housing is a wonderful scheme because it represents a tangible hope for young people that they can own houses of their own. However, it is not materialising because the Government has balked at its responsibilities in that area.

If voluntary and social groups have been successful in their negotiations, why are increasing numbers of homeless people staying in cardboard boxes outside the gates of Leinster House at night? How many of those have died over the past couple of months? The statistics speak for themselves and if anybody tells me that social partnership is working as it should I would ask him or her to look at the areas of failure.

Homlessness affects towns and cities throughout the country. If the social partners can focus on one area, I hope it will be this problem. We are told that poverty is being eliminated but the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Business people and trade unionists can fight the mock wars referred to earlier but, while homelessness continues, what will be the response of the partners?