Alex White (Labour)

Will the Leader tell the House the Government's position on the pay freeze contained in the recently agreed wage agreement? The trade union leaders appeared to glean from what the Taoiseach said in the Dáil yesterday that the matter should be re-opened. When the Taoiseach returned from Berlin last night he articulated that he did not propose to re-open the matter. Senator Boyle, presumably on behalf of the Green Party component of the Government, said the 11-month pay freeze should be extended beyond August of next year. What is the Government position?

There is a strong argument to be made that in agreeing the pay deal in September, the Government acted precipitously and it should have waited until the budget statement was made and the true position on the public finances was known. A very compelling argument can be made on why it entered into that deal at the time and in the way it did. Having entered into it, the credibility of the Government and all the social partners is greatly undermined by these suggestions that it might be re-opened eight or nine months after its implementation, in August of next year. Will the Leader indicate to the House the Government's position on that?

I agree with Senator Bradford when he says there is a clear need for us to debate in this House the Government and Opposition proposals on job creation. We had such a debate in this House on 15 October last, the day after the budget, and the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Kelleher attended. When I invited him and my colleagues to point to any single proposal in the Minister's speech that day that would bring about one extra job or constitute a job creation policy, neither he nor one of the Members on the Government side was able to do so. If we are to have the debate for which Senator Bradford rightly calls, I ask that the Government bring forward a set of proposals, a plan or give us some glimpse of what it proposes to do regarding the most serious economic crisis we have faced for a century, according to the Taoiseach.