Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader in his response to intimate when it is proposed the House will sit next week and for the rest of May. I also ask the Leader to facilitate as a matter of extreme urgency a debate on social partnership. As we are in the middle of a recession, social partnership is needed more than ever and I appeal to unions and employers not to be entrenched. Social partnership is needed now more than ever to discuss our competitiveness, how to protect and create jobs and, in particular, how to communicate with the people, which is a matter to which Senator Ó Murchú referred. I wonder what planet the Senator is on. Is he again blaming George Lee for reporting on what is happening? Unemployment has risen-----