David Norris (Independent)

I am doing so. What is being done with the National Pensions Reserve Fund is disastrous. There is a train crash coming down the line in respect of pensions and the EU and the IMF are being allowed to dip their nasty little fingers into this fund.

I had hoped to speak after my colleagues, Senators O'Toole and Mullen. I do not have permission to move their amendment to the motion but I am very interested in it. I would like a proper examination to be carried out in respect of the proposal for metro north. I hope this project proceeds and I was very much involved in progressing it in the early stages. The project must provide good value, however, and must give rise to the creation of the envisaged number of jobs.

The second part of the amendment in the names of Senators O'Toole and Mullen refers to the moral hazard created by narrowing the gap between welfare and wages giving rise to a need for an immediate reversal of the decision to reduce the minimum wage. I was not able to give my support to the amendment as a result of the inclusion of this stipulation. I want to protect people on the minimum wage. I have been lobbied by restaurant owners, however, who are going out of their minds in respect of this matter. If we could take account of the needs of the restaurant sector while protecting the minimum wage to the largest degree possible, progress could be made. An absolute disaster has been visited upon restaurant owners as a result of the kind of wages they are required to pay to, for example, those who work on Sundays.

Let us consider this matter sector by sector.