Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the savings and the assessment of the savings, that is the role of the implementation body. That body is now looking through the activation plans and when I return to the Seanad in four or five weeks I will give a better sense and model of how we will implement that.

Senator O'Toole and Senator Buttimer raised the need for clear objectives and performance indicators. I agree with them. A number of Senators asked where the implementation plans could be seen. They will be published on-line and will be available for people to see. The implementation body is engaging in a process of dialogue with Departments about querying the plans and, as will be inevitable in some cases, asking for better plans and information. That process will not be hidden. We will use the technology Senator O'Malley mentioned to involve this House and the public in sharing that process.

It is good to have Senator Harris back at full throttle to the benefit of the House. He is correct that this agreement is very different from those that preceded it. Senator Mooney, Senator Walsh and others referred to the culture of agreements that preceded this one. This is not social partnership but an agreement between us as an employer and those who work for us. It is about us giving guarantees that if those who work for us change the way they do things and make savings, we will consider giving some of those savings back to them. It is the same way that private companies across the world operate. We are asking for very significant changes in practices that should have been changed a long time ago. In this country we set out a way of doing things but we are very bad at deciding later to stop doing them that way. We need to have more sunset clauses, as they are called, across the sector.