John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I join Senator Quinn and others in asking the Leader to arrange a debate on the budget tomorrow night following its announcement in the Dáil. In my seven years as a Member of this House we have always had such debate. I do not believe it is particularly fair to ask the Labour Party to suspend the debate on its Private Members' Bill for a second time. Members will be aware it suspended the discussion on the Bill a few weeks ago to allow statements to be made on the flooding. There is no reason we cannot have a debate on the budget tomorrow following completion of Private Members' business at 7 p.m. I do not agree with Senator Boyle that we should have a discussion in January or February. However, we should discuss the budget following its announcement tomorrow to allow Members to give their views on the proposals announced by the Minister for Finance.

I join colleagues who have expressed regret at the announcement made yesterday by the Garda Representative Association of its intention to ballot its members. I respect the role played by the Garda Síochána. It is a fine force and an important part of the State set-up. However, I appeal to union leaders to pull back from the brink whereby the force would effectively be breaking the law. I do not believe that position can be squared with its role as enforcer of the law. It should reconsider its position.

I join Senator Fitzgerald and others who have raised the issue of public service agreement and express my shock at what I heard from the Government side today. Everybody in this Chamber, the Lower House and people on the street knows that the Taoiseach was prepared to do a deal at any cost last week. However, following the return of the Minister for Finance from elsewhere in Europe, a number of backbenchers developed a backbone and a large number of members of the general public expressed the opinion that the deal on the table was not worth agreeing to at any cost. In terms of rewriting history, namely, that it was the Taoiseach who put it up to the public sector unions, nothing could be further from the truth. The real position should be spelled out.