Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government has an agreement with Fianna Fáil that is fundamentally cowardly. Fianna Fáil should have gone into a coalition Government instead of this myth that it is not in power or has no control and that if anything goes wrong, it is Fine Gael's fault and if anything goes right, it is Fianna Fáil's doing. We need leadership in this area. Otherwise, we will go into a year of strikes and industrial unrest. I second Senator Ó Ríordáin's proposal when he rose in this House asking for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, to come to the House and have a discussion. Even at this late hour, the Minister should come to the House and reassure us that at least there is a plan because nobody else thinks there is a plan. There is plan of no engagement or discussion and the thinking is that everything will go well and the Government will face it down. That will lead to an economic crash. We talk about what happened in the referendum in the UK where the people decided to leave the EU. The industrial unrest we are facing into could destroy all the good work of the past five years in trying to rebuild our economic independence. It could all be lost for the lack of a plan and a lack of engagement. I ask that the Minister comes to the House as soon as possible to discuss what his plan is in respect of industrial peace for our nation.