Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

In many ways, the plan is a grand synthesis. It is good to pull these matters together. The prosperity of this country 50 years ago was based on the first programme of economic expansion. Of course it was not a plan in the Stalinist sense of the word. It was a programme such as others which have served us very well, as has the participation of the social partners, a fact which has been internationally recognised. Some people of a neoliberal-conservative persuasion disagree. For example, Samuel Brittan of the Financial Times came to Ireland and could not understand social partnership as it did not fit into his vision of the world. Nor does it fit into the vision of the world of the Sunday Independent, which would love policies which landed us in industrial conflict on a grand scale. It misses the fact that we did not have a Thatcherite industrial relations policy.