Shane Ross (Independent)

The extraordinary peculiar and inconvenient fact about that is that the multinationals are not represented at the social partnership talks. They do not have anybody at the talks. The engine of the economy has nobody at the talks. They have contempt for the talks, they do not abide by the wage agreement and do not have anything to do with it. They pay their people in a completely different way. I cannot prove that multinationals are the only cause of economic success any more than anybody else who is perpetuating the myth that it is social partnership. It is not. I do not know whether it was partly to do with it or not but I doubt it. Please do not assert it because there is no evidence for it.

It has been stated here that this is a democratic operation that has been taking place in Government Buildings for six months. That is nonsense. It has bypassed Members of this House and the other House and has been sewn up without any input from this House and most Members of the other House.