Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is welcome to the House and it is a great pleasure to address him here today. I thank him for his attendance. I first wish to join my colleagues on the nomination of Senator Lawless. I was one of the first people who was sceptical about it, even though I knew Senator Lawless was a good Galway man. It took a brave Mayo man to bring in a Galway man. The Mayo men came down the Curragh Line with their shoes under their arms - saving them for the big town - but we will forgive them that. Senator Lawless was a great and brave nomination by the Taoiseach for which I congratulate him.

The Government is now facing an unprecedented industrial relations crisis and a new approach is necessary to overcome these issues. The Government must realise or understand that it cannot continue to expect workers to live in income poverty and not encounter industrial unrest. There must be an admission that the recovery message, which was oversold for all intents and purposes, created unrealistic expectations given the economic uncertainty still facing the country. Unions cannot be expected to support the recovery unless there is honest discourse, which I would describe as full transparency, with respect to the finances of the State. Different figures are being bandied about all the time, which creates a level of expectation Members are aware cannot be fulfilled. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance to state they got it wrong with respect to the amount or level of recovery there was. We are in recovery - the Taoiseach is to be congratulated for that - but the level of recovery does not support the expectations in the country. Once this admission is made, we can then move on to an understanding of realistic margins within which the budget must operate for the security of workers.

The Government must also admit the current hard-nosed approach to the talks regarding the Lansdowne Road agreement is not working. As a country, we are at risk of repeating the worst mistakes of our recent past in which we agreed national pay deals and then agreed a series of side deals and special measures on top of that, which makes a farce of the entire approach. The current industrial unrest can no longer be kept at bay and this requires a strong overarching solution. We need a social partnership again that embraces all and brings everybody on board. It is not enough to ignore some of those unions that have difficulty with the Lansdowne Road agreement while others are mindful of the state of the nation's purse. The Government must reconvene the Lansdowne Road talks and give all unions, whether part of the current deal or not, the opportunity for a renewed chance to put their case on the table. The Government must come to this in an open an honest fashion; admitting it exaggerated the amount of money it had, and with transparent figures on what might be possible. Out of this, a new and overarching deal must be established to bring an end to the current unrest.

We are at risk of ten years of industrial unrest unless we do something. I believe the Taoiseach's previous Government gave leadership and I believe the trade unions will respond to him positively. I ask the Taoiseach to revisit the Lansdowne Road agreement. Let us go back at it and let us get all the unions under the umbrella at the same time. I ask the Taoiseach to take that on board and again thank him for listening to me.