Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I welcome what Senator O'Toole said. I know this is a bad day for the economy and I know that people think the rock of the banking debacle lying on them is the worst they have to deal with, but there is a larger rock coming down on them and that is the public sector finances to which the Minister referred yesterday. If there is to be any credibility in the Croke Park deal, cuts in numbers are going to have to be delivered soon because the deal is running out of road and credibility with the public. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, takes serious action with regard to the TUI. We cannot have this game whereby the TUI does not sign up to the deal and then wants the benefits. That must not be allowed. So far as I know, the Minister of State is of that mind but the problem has been that once it gets to the Secretary General and into the Department of Finance and the Department of the Taoiseach, cowardice and soft soaping start to appear.

I agree with the point made by Senator O'Toole. Yesterday I saw David Begg and Jack O'Connor, the leaders of the trade union movement who were trying to do their duty, being barracked by the usual bunch of Trots who want it every way. They want to be a part of the Croke Park deal and they want the benefits but they also want to be outside the deal and posturing as socialists. This must stop. If one does not sign up for the deal, one does not benefit from it. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, is backed to the hilt by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan. I will be keeping a close eye on it because I will be back to it if they do not back the Minister of State. The Croke Park deal is meant to deliver cuts, we want to see numbers cut, we want to see credibility in the deal and, in the meantime, we want the Trots to get off the backs of the legitimate trade union movement.