Dan Boyle (Green Party)

We must welcome the draft agreement between the Government and the social partners which was reached yesterday evening. I agree with Senator O'Toole that some of the reporting on this has been quite peevish. The need for this agreement is due to the lack of certainty on decisions that have been made over recent months. People working in the public service needed reassurance that there would not be any further cuts and that any reorganisation of the public service, especially if aimed at making it more effective, would be accompanied by appropriate incentives. The agreement on the table allows that to happen. It will now go through a process in which the various social partners will debate the proposal and, it is to be hoped, agree on it.

A similar process should exist in this and the other House, although this did not happen when previous social partnership agreements were reached. Especially at this time when important decisions on our economy must be made, the imprimatur of both Houses of the Oireachtas to an agreement of this type, which will be economically important for decades, should be sought and given. I believe it will be given.

The decision on the Quinn Insurance Group is worrying and further discussion is needed in the House. Current events in the banking sector have had an impact in this regard. The approach of appointing an administrator will be helpful.

Pre-empting the debate the Leader is offering the House tomorrow on NAMA, I will say that today's announcement contains much for Members of this House to consider. It will show that NAMA as an organisation has been doing its work effectively. Many of the loans from financial institutions are to be discounted by a far greater amount than was discussed previously. Recapitalisation in each of the financial institutions will be done on the basis that NAMA has not been oversold and has not acted as a cushion for those who, it is claimed, were bailed out by this process. It has done its work on behalf of the State well.

When we discuss the wider issue of the individual banks, the context will be one of continuing disappointment at the efforts of those who have brought us to the state we are in. There is a realisation on the Government's part that difficult decisions must be made, but they will be the correct decisions because they are part of a process that has seen a series of correct decisions being made in this area. I hope the debate is not in any way corrupted by comments such as those we have heard along the lines of "If we had done X, things would have been easier." If we had done anything differently, it would have cost the taxpayer far more and would have had a bigger impact now and in the future. I look forward to the debate tomorrow.