Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I have no sympathy for that point of view. I remember talking to Samuel Brittan, a financial journalist, and the one thing he could not understand about the Celtic tiger was the idea of social partnership which was contrary to every principle of management of economic and budgetary policy which people in Britain had learned. It dumped social partnership at the end of the 1960s, or certainly definitively at the end of the 1970s, and has not gone back to it.

Equally, one or two Members of the other House are allied to the point of view of our hard left trade unionists. In the constituency in which I reside, South Tipperary, a Deputy proudly told me on the airwaves that he had never supported an EU treaty or a social partnership agreement. The reality is that such an approach would be very destabilising for the country. I believe we would face quite a difficult situation if it was not possible to agree because people would be a little without bearings as to how they should proceed. Senator O'Toole spoke — he cannot do so often enough — about the way France, for example, has had to conduct matters where edicts are moderated and modified by action on the streets. I do not believe that is a good way to run a country.

The Taoiseach seemed to rather firmly refute the notion of a democratic deficit and I agree entirely with Senator O'Toole's view on that. The Houses of the Oireachtas are free to spend more time engaging with various aspects of the process. I also agree with the Taoiseach that it probably needs to be broken down into specific subjects rather than being overly generalised.

I hope the missing piece, that is, the agriculture discussions, which are very important, will be successfully concluded. I speak as a part-time farmer and I believe agriculture has far more to gain by being inside the social partnership arrangements than outside them. My only regret is that it has been outside it for such a long time even when it was already clear the nitrates issue was being resolved.