David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern. He is a decent man and I know he will not take anything I say either amiss or personally. I compliment Senator Donohoe on his outstanding contribution. While I am delivering bouquets, I compliment the Labour Party on introducing an important and socially relevant Bill. It seems to be part of a pincer movement. I notice the party introduced a similar motion in the Dáil recently and applied some pressure to the Government on this issue.

I turn to the Minister of State's speech and the remarks made by my good friend and colleague, Senator Callely, on the involvement of the social partners. We are the sovereign Parliament of this land and are not bound to be deferential to the social partners. They are citizens, as are we, but as legislators, we can instruct them.

We all may be singing from the same hymn sheet but some of us are singing out of tune. There was a rather flat note in the Minister of State's speech when he stated that the Government is committed in principle to equal treatment for agency workers. What does this mean? It means the Government will not do anything really. That is what it looks like.