Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that it should not have been a matter of choice for people on that level of pay when it was not a choice for others. It was important that the rule would apply to everybody. I do not think any section of workers can simply decide that the rest of the population can carry the burden and that they are exempt because they say so, with no consequences. That cannot be right. We must have the power to ensure that the claim that some should be immune from this is not allowed to sit. That is why this power is contained in the legislation, should it be required. My hope and expectation is that it will not be exercised at all because I am hopeful of an overarching agreement being reached with the Congress of Trade Unions. That, however, is a matter for individual unions and individual union members to determine.

In response to the specific question from Senator Byrne as to whether Ministers can vary the Haddington Road agreement, the answer is "No". It will be a solemn undertaking by Government and it will not be a matter for the Minister for Education and Skills or the Minister for Health or any other Minister to tweak certain elements. The exercising of that power will have to be done with my consent.

I do not know whether I should allow myself to be drawn by Senator Cullinane again but I will make one comment. I remember, in advance of and immediately after the last general election, the leader of the Sinn Féin Party, Deputy Adams, saying that what we should do as a State was send the troika home and tell them to take their money with them. That was a brilliant economic strategy. It would have meant that would have had literally no public expenditure because our economy would have collapsed. We would not have been cutting pay but doing what collapsed economies do, namely, letting go hundreds of thousands of workers, closing schools, hospitals and so forth. While "send the troika home" is a lovely soundbite, it is economically illiterate. That was the basis on which the general election was fought.

It is important, as we emerge from the disaster that this Government inherited, that we have a clear sight of the pathway to recovery. As we, please God, enter into a better place, there will be many different versions of the truth. No doubt, Fianna Fáil will say that it was its own brilliance in bequeathing a budget to us that pushed us on the way or the fact that it spancelled us into a troika deal set us on the path to recovery, while Sinn Féin will have a different view of it all. We need to clearly and properly acknowledge the hard lifting that was done by the Irish people and the cohesion of two large parties, trusted by the people, above all else. Senators have spoken about broken promises but the one important promise, above all else, was that we would regain our economic sovereignty and return our economy to a safe place. That is a promise we are determined to keep.