Joe O'Toole (Independent)

For those people, me and unemployed people, the idea that Europe might be casting an eye over our budget is far from being an intrusion into our sovereignty. Rather, it is a great reassurance and provides a sense of certainty which I welcome. The idea that we can share our views and discuss them with our European partners in order to ensure that none of the 27 member states goes AWOL again is something which should be proposed and not opposed from all sides. I ask the Government not to take that as support for its position, but to recognise that the questions being raised by Fine Gael are important and need to be responded to properly.

I thank the Leader for the debate on the Croke Park agreement today and its structure, whereby the Minister will respond after hearing views from all different sides. That is important.

I ask that we give some consideration to a point raised by my colleagues, Senators Feargal Quinn and Jim Walsh - who rarely gets things right, as we know, but sometimes raise matters of importance - yesterday. The Supreme Court judgment by Mr. Justice Adrian Hardiman on the tribunals raises issues of extraordinary importance. I do not want to interfere with the tribunals or second guess the Supreme Court. There are issues which should trouble all of us, in terms of how tribunals should operate, and I would like to have a discussion on that. We should not have a blame game, rather we should recognise to where we go from here.