Feargal Quinn (Independent)

There are three barbers on Grafton Street with signs advertising free haircuts today. I am not sure whether anyone will avail of it but it reminds me of the value they place on their jobs. I told the story a couple of weeks ago about a young women in Limerick who told an employer she would happily work for nothing if only she could get a job. A couple of months later, he was able to say that she was so valuable to her that he could give her a job. I mention this because it with sorrow that I see what is happening with the current strike. There must be no understanding of the damage that is going to be done to the country. Foreign direct investment is a very competitive marketplace, and we have competitors in that area. When a company is planning to invest in Ireland and they are torn between locating here and somewhere else, the people in that other place will tell the company that they would be mad to go to Ireland given the way we are behaving during the current crisis which is closing the operation of so many businesses. I urge those who have created this strike to get back to work and open negotiations once they are back. It is not possible to think otherwise. We should be ashamed of ourselves and we should be deeply in sorrow at the action that has been taken.