Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I was very struck some months ago when I heard the French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, on the Sunday news programme on RTE radio speaking about what she perceived to be the solidarity that existed within Irish life. She said it was our defining characteristic which spared us the kind of pain and turmoil the Greeks were experiencing. I was taken aback by this because at that stage my experience was that solidarity was in short supply. I was somewhat reassured and perhaps a little puzzled that such an outside opinion existed. I was encouraged because I thought solidarity was in great danger at that stage. I say that as one who worked in the private sector, who employs people and who saw the canyon that had opened up between private and public sector workers. It was as if we were working in separate economies. It was most disheartening and insidious in that it could have brought us all to a sorry end.

To see the Croke Park deal in the context of restoring solidarity is something I greatly welcome and support. Words such as "noble" have been used to describe the position taken by union leaders in regard to the negotiations and their recommendations to their members. I would go a little further and say there is something of the heroic in how some of the senior negotiators deported themselves knowing they were bringing on themselves a huge degree of anger. I expect to experience that for myself on Monday next when I meet the trades council in Dundalk. I fully expect to hear that anger but at least I will hear it in the context of a properly constituted meeting where there will be a fair exchange of views. I am happy to be the object of that anger and will defend the deal as the best one available. I will defend it as balanced and as the basis for a recalibration of partnership which I believe it can be.

Again, as one who experienced the loss of competitiveness in the economy in recent years, as the local government charges I was paying increased and as wage inflation drove consumer goods inflation, and so on, I could feel the draining away of my ability to compete, proximate as I am to another economy just over the Border. I experienced a great sense of relief when I read the Croke Park deal because I see it as the basis on which partnership can begin to serve all the country again, not only the constituent parts. I believe it lost its way in the latter end and contributed to the competitiveness issues that have bedevilled us.

Some weeks ago, Garret FitzGerald wrote that with all the turmoil going on the big gain has been underplayed, namely, the regaining of competitiveness. I agree with that. This has not been aired sufficiently. It is the prize because it is what will underpin economic recovery and create the basis on which we can begin to put in place all the new economic initiatives and strategies that have been knocking around on paper for too long without actually happening. These can succeed only in the context of a competitive economy.

The other day I moved into a new office on the sixth floor, having been a bit of a-----