Mark Dearey (Green Party)

Any one of the three major stories breaking today would have made it a red letter day. To have three in the one day is truly an indication of the type of flux with which we are living in political and economic terms. It behoves everyone to keep one's head, not least the administrator appointed to Quinn Insurance, the commentariat on the Croke Park deal to be put to the union membership and Members in this and the Lower House. We all need a degree of calm and moderation in the face of everything that is occurring.

I am delighted to hear Senator Ó Murchú speak with some optimism about the eventual outcome of the ballots on the deal to be put to union members. It is the beginning of the healing of a dangerous rift that has opened between the public and private sectors. Each side has a sense of bitterness towards the other. Some of this bitterness has been stoked while some of it has been caused by circumstances. It is important that this opportunity be grasped and that people in the two major parts of our working economy begin looking at one another as colleagues in common cause, not as competitors.

I have noted an intersection between the announcements on NAMA and the potential deal, namely, the degree of certainty that will begin to return to business. Certainty in public sector pay will feed into the business community's approach to pay within its sector and create a good basis for planning business until 2014 at least. This is welcome.