Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power. We tend to meet at times when I have difficult amendments to deal with, and I have another one today. Before I get to that point I wish like to explain that it is no wonder the media get it wrong when one hears a spokesman for a Government which knew every line of the benchmarking agreement being so underinformed and unaware of what actually went on. It takes my breath away that somebody on the Government side of the House can talk about public sector reform when I have, since Senator Walsh was elected nine years ago, talked about Seanad reform on foot of three or four reports which he has been unable to put into play. I am not going to waste any more time on benchmarking, apart from saying a few things. On the issue of no recognition being given of the value of pensions, it will not take the Senator long to find out that it is on the second page of the benchmarking report, which shows how it was taken into consideration, signed off on not just by the ICTU and the unions but by IBEC and a High Court judge, to the effect that they did their assessment, related it to the private sector and then reduced it from the top quartile to the second or third. They then applied the value of the public sector pension. Therefore Senator Walsh is incorrect.