Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Since the issue of the value of social partnership has been raised, I am sick of the way in which vested interest economists selectively pick small items and state they would have been achieved without social partnership. Social partnership stabilised this country in the period between 1987 and 1989. Whatever might have been asserted subsequently about wage agreements and other matters, stability was achieved by the institution of an agreement whereby, uniquely, and entirely differently from the neighbouring island, enlightened trade unions accepted there was no point in demanding 15% wage increases when inflation was 14%. Many other things developed from that basis. Subsequently, social partnership has extended so far beyond wage agreements that its institutional framework requires an examination.

I am always intrigued by the allegation that the public sector had to be dragged into the use of modern methods, etc. While I will discuss third level teaching shortly, every teacher I know at primary and secondary level has demanded for years that he or she be properly equipped to teach using modern technology. They have not sought special pay agreements or productivity deals. Instead, they have sought to have the equipment provided, in order that they could use modern technology as part of teaching. There were no hidden agendas, they did not seek extra money and they were not given it.

In the sector in which I work, all innovation in teaching, whether in the use of information technology, modern teaching or audio-visual methods, has been dragged out of the system by teachers' innovation. The teachers did not hamper innovation. If anything, innovation has been held back by the inability of the State and the funding agencies to respond rapidly. I was using e-mail before any part of the private sector had discovered electronic mail. The same is true for the Internet. We were held back in the use of information technology because for a long time our private sector was quite primitive about such matters. The image of the slow public sector and the thrusting private sector is contradicted by the facts and we should move on from it.

I support Senator Brian Hayes's amendment because we need to create an institutional way to re-establish the primacy of politics in how our country develops. Without that primacy we cannot have a genuine democracy.