Joe O'Toole (Independent)

As we go about our business in Ireland, it is worth looking at the rest of Europe. Over the last year we have seen strikes in Italy, Belgium, France and Germany. Today, France and the UK are shut down entirely, with rail travel, education, and health care affected. We may ask ourselves why that is not happening in Ireland. That there is not such disruption here and that we have recently had fewer days of public service strikes than any other country in western Europe can be ascribed to what the previous Minister for Finance, former Deputy McCreevy, described to me in private conversation as "the grand prize". We delivered something through a formula that boils down to two expressions, "social partnership" and "benchmarking". The next person who stands up to ask whether it was worth it and whether we gave away too much should remember that is the prize that we have delivered.

On another issue that I would like us to examine, we have regularly discussed the Lisbon Agenda. The Heads of Government are meeting this week to discuss economic and other reform in Europe and progress on the agenda. The reality is outlined very well in this week's Charlemagne column in The Economist. It states that we need what has been achieved in Finland, which is now a model for reform in the area. "TEACHERS, teachers, teachers" is the subtitle. It goes on to state that we can do it without examinations, a national curriculum, or testing. All we need is good teachers with the responsibility and freedom to get on with their work. To get good teachers, we must simply allow them professional responsibility and pay them well.

A good start has been made within the last hour in the announcement of the establishment of the Teaching Council, a move forward. Let us keep such matters to the forefront of our minds when considering discussions in Government Buildings on public service pay, benchmarking, the cost of teachers and so on. We are the beneficiaries. Senator Ormonde and I particularly welcomed aspects of the report on third level education published by the OECD within the last year, especially since it finally accorded freedom to the institutes of technology by giving them annual grants through the Higher Education Authority. We bemoaned the fact that they had no access to doctorates, but that is now being addressed under the Government plan in the budget.

We must carefully consider how we can move matters forward positively. The only danger would be if we did not have a properly paid public service or failed to deal with the issues causing problems in France or affecting lower-paid migrant workers. There are issues to address, and the prize is as good now as last time.