Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----by privatising Eircom in 1999. It is pretty cheeky now to say things are not working out because it started this process. Unfortunately Fine Gael continued it. It has been a disaster. People in rural Ireland are at a complete loss with regard to this issue. That is the point. The privatisation model has failed. We want a debate on the matter but we need the Leader's Government to recognise that privatising assets is not the best way forward in every circumstance.

The second issue I want to raise is really serious. The section 39 workers' strike is due on 14 February. Something quite shocking happened yesterday at the health committee. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform refused to turn up to the health committee. We have a strike affecting thousands of workers and thousands of vulnerable service users and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform refused to turn up. Who is running the Government? I demand that the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, comes in here to explain why his Department refused to attend an Oireachtas meeting yesterday. The Department is essential to the solution to this crisis. As things stand, workers will have to go out on strike. The Government has been warned about it for months. We have heard talk and more talk but when it comes down to it, the Department is hiding. It is hiding from workers, from my union, SIPTU, and it is hiding from coming out and explaining where the hell it was yesterday. It is not good enough for a Government Department to hide away from the public and from Oireachtas committees. I would like a clear statement from the Leader condemning that and I am asking for the Minister to come to the House.