Call for union leader to apologise to politicians

SEANAD REPORT:A PUBLIC sector union leader should apologise to politicians for rubbishing their views in a demeaning fashion, said Paul Bradford(FG).

Mr Bradford did not refer to the leader by name but he was reacting to a statement by Irish Nurses’ Organisation general secretary Liam Doran that those who did not know much about what the social partners were talking about “should keep their mouths shut until we see what happens”.

If that was what some senior union people thought of the role of politicians and the place of political decision-makers in the process of attempting to turn around this country’s economic predicament, it was exceptionally worrying, said Mr Bradford. “I hope his colleagues do not think as little of elected politicians as he appears to do. It is important that everybody rows together. But to have democratic views rubbished in such a demeaning fashion by somebody who, as far as I am concerned, is elected by nobody is quite frightening indeed.”

Shane Ross(Ind) said what the union leader had said told a lot about what he and colleagues thought about democracy. He had said issues of national importance should be left to himself and others. Moody's credit rating agency had said it was looking at next week's budget with a view to downgrading our credit rating. "I hope to God they were not watching the kind of farce that has been going on in Government Buildings. If they see the Taoiseach capitulate to trade unions' demands, and if they see these types of irresponsible statements of democrats being told to keep their mouths shut on national issues, they will give the thumbs down to Ireland next week.

It was vitally important that the Taoiseach got himself “a bit of bottle” in the face of such threats and delivered the kind of action that was needed, he said.

Dan Boyle(GP) said social partnership had a useful function but it should never be regarded as a decision-making body. Decisions were the responsibility of government. For those participating in the social partnership process to presume it was otherwise was a negation of democracy.

He said he found it somewhat ironic that we would be judged by an agency like Moody’s, a rating agency that had contributed a lot to the international economic uncertainty in recent times.

The refusal of permission by the Israelis for the Minister for Foreign Affairs to enter Gaza was an affront to the Irish State, said Eugene Regan(FG). He would like to hear from the Minister, Mr Martin, what his response to this insult was. "I know it's a sensitive subject, given the findings of the UN fact-finding mission led by Justice Goldstone . . . and where he said there were serious indications of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."