Leaders' Questions

Today a family and a community in Waterford city are dealing with unimaginable grief and trauma. Two adults and two children have lost their lives in an arson attack and two more children fight for their lives. It is a scene of utter devastation and heartbreak in Waterford. Gardaí are now carrying out a murder investigation. This community needs every support possible. We stand with it at this desperate time. We think of those lives that have been lost. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha. Beidh níos ná 300,000 oibrithe sa tseirbhís phoiblí ag dul ar stailc amárach. Tá siad ag troid ar son comhréitigh pá réasúnta a thugann aghaidh ar an gcostas maireachtála atá tar éis ardú go géar. Is féidir leis an Rialtas an stailc seo a sheachaint tríd aontú a dhéanamh déileáil le cúrsaí pá mar thosaíocht. We are facing into a strike action of more than 300,000 public sector workers for a pay deal to address the soaring cost of living. These are nurses, teachers, special needs assistants - public servants - forced to the picket lines, and Sinn Féin stands with them. These are the workers we depend on. They educate our children, take care of us when we are sick and deliver the services we depend on every single day. They literally keep the country running, yet they cannot afford to get by. They have been left with no option other than to strike because the Government has failed to do its job. That is what has brought us to this point. The previous public sector pay deal expired last June, so the Government has had nearly four months to listen to public sector workers, four months to engage in meaningful negotiation and conversation and four months to sort this out and avoid industrial action. In fact, the unions warned the Government last year of the challenges it would face in reaching a new pay deal. The Government chose to ignore, delay and drag things out. Where there should have been leadership, it has engaged in brinksmanship. The Taoiseach's remarks last week provoked real anger. He claimed people want industrial action irrespective of what happens, but that is not true. This is not a game for public sector workers; this is about having enough money to pay their bills, provide for their children and have a decent future. That is why pay must be at the core of these negotiations - pay first and foremost. The Government refuses to listen. It refuses to hear what public sector workers have been saying for a long time. It is more interested in shifting blame than in any serious effort to resolve this dispute. That disrespect has led to this strike. That is why we face school closures, the cancellation of hospital appointments and disruption to public services. Public sector workers do not want to be on strike; they want to be at work. They need a fair pay settlement so they can live decently. The way to resolve this dispute and avert this strike action is for the Government to agree to enter talks with pay as the priority and first item on the agenda. This is a crisis entirely of the Government's making. It now needs to intervene constructively and show public sector workers the respect they deserve. The phones should be lifted to the unions and it should be made clear that the Government will enter these talks with pay as the priority and the first item on the agenda.

Hear, hear.

First of all, I would like to take a moment on the evolving situation in Waterford. I know that Deputies from across the House will have been united in shock, and indeed horror, as the news emerged this morning of the early morning fire at a house in Birchwood estate in Waterford. As Deputy McDonald said, two adults and two children have been killed in the fire, with another two children with very serious injuries being treated in hospital. The further news that An Garda Síochána is treating the incident as a murder investigation adds to the sense of shock and incomprehension. The thoughts and prayers of everyone in this Dáil and across government are with the family, the wider community in Waterford, the first responders, on whom we have to take a moment to reflect because the trauma that they encountered when they went to that house this morning cannot be comprehended and will leave an impact, and with the staff in the hospital in terms of the emergency situation they had to deal with. It puts the important role of public servants in our minds when we think of the first responders. All supports will be provided to the community. The Minister for education has ensured that the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, and counselling supports will be provided to children in the specific school and the neighbourhood. Regarding wider counselling and services, through the community network, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, will ensure that supports are made available also. In relation to the public service strike tomorrow, this Government is pro public service. The previous Government was pro public service. I come from a trade union background. I respect the trade union movement. I attended Fórsa's annual conference earlier this year. If we look at the expansion of the public service over the past number of years, there has been an increase of about 25% in the numbers of people working in our public service, to over 424,000. That has been a steady growth over five or six years. This is a Government that understands the need for an expansion of public services and public servants to do it. For example, the number of healthcare staff has grown by about 31,000 since 2019. There has been a 53% increase in hospital consultants. There are about 11,000 more nurses, midwives and so forth. Next year, we will have up to 28,000 special needs assistants in our schools. I have been involved with the expansion of SNA numbers all my political life. We are pro public service. I want to make that very clear. In terms of the Deputy's assertions, we approached the budget with a cost-of-living framework in our minds. That is why we did substantial measures in terms of an income tax package, which amounts to €1.3 billion and cuts taxes, particularly the point at which workers go into the higher rate of tax where the band expansion will be significant. We are also listening to congress. We took measures that will reduce the cost of childcare significantly. These give us a clear pathway to get that cost down to €200 over the next number of budgets. We then did work on disability. From the outset of the Government, childcare and disability and the costs around disability were clear Government priorities. This will help many working families. In addition, there is a whole range of other measures, such as the increase in the tax credit and the improvement in student supports, all of which are helping working families. The reduction in excise duties on petrol and diesel also benefits workers. We saw the budget-----

-----as creating a platform, along with the €1.2 billion in provision, for negotiations.

It is a good platform for negotiations to begin. We invite everybody in to discuss it.

The Taoiseach has known since June that a new pay deal had to be struck with public sector workers, and yet we find ourselves almost four months on here, at the eleventh hour, on the brink of this strike action tomorrow. The reason we are here is because of a failure of this Government to engage, to agree and to enter into those talks processes in good faith. It is glaringly obvious that the issue of pay for public sector workers has to be the first item on the agenda. The Taoiseach knows as well as I do that they, like other workers, are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Why on earth is the Government engaging in this brinkmanship? Why on earth is it playing a game of chicken with public sector workers at a time when what we need is leadership? This is just a matter of good order and entering into discussions in a rational and fair way. However, rather than do that, the Taoiseach has said things that have in fact inflamed the situation.

I ask him now to be constructive, make it clear that pay will be the first matter, not the only matter-----

-----but the first matter for negotiations, and try to avert this strike action.

We have had ongoing contact and meetings with the trade union movement. The Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, for example, is one such regular mechanism by which we engage with congress and trade union leaders. We circulated some ideas to the trade union movement. I offered an enhanced social dialogue earlier this year to the trade union movement, given the geopolitical uncertainty facing the world, the wars that have broken out and the impact that is having on economy. I made the point to the trade union leadership that we should move into an enhanced form of social dialogue so that we have a more united societal approach to really fundamental problems all over the world that are impacting on our society and our economy. That has not been taken up, but that was offered. Everybody knows that in any national pay agreement, pay is always the central issue. Let us call a spade a spade. That has not changed-----

So why are we facing into a strike?

You are asking me? I think you might be asking the wrong person.

What I would say is this. We are open for discussions. We have invited in the unions to talk-----

-----and the Minister for public expenditure said every issue that they have raised is on the table.

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the four people, including the two children, who were killed this morning in Waterford. Our thoughts are with the two children who are in hospital. It is really shocking and harrowing what is happened, and the wider community needs support. I also pay tribute to the first responders and the staff in the hospital who engaged in hugely important and traumatic work this morning. More than 300,000 public service workers are taking strike action tomorrow. Nurses, teachers, doctors, SNAs, and local authority workers will be among those joining the pickets. The Taoiseach's commentary on this about the industrial action has been deeply unhelpful. On the few occasions that he has interjected, his statements have been glib and incendiary. Last week, he said, "People want industrial action almost now irrespective of what happens." He decided to rage-bait public sector workers and depict them as spoiling for a fight. Does he really think nurses want to be going on strike tomorrow? Does he think teachers want to be standing outside schools on picket lines? His comments are telling. They betray a condescending attitude from the Government to public service workers which has led to this strike. The Government made almost no attempt to engage with unions in advance of the pay deal expiring. There was a half-hearted effort of preliminary talks that was made only about two weeks before the previous deal expired. Comparing that with the negotiations which happened for the last two public sector deals, preliminary talks and then formal negotiations happened long before those deals expired. On this occasion, the Government opted to ignore the unions and treated them with contempt while expecting them to fall neatly into line. It got that badly wrong. The letter sent by Jack Chambers yesterday was no more than a desperate face-saving exercise, an attempt to disguise the Government's inept handling of the crisis, which has led to one of the country's biggest strikes. The responsibility for tomorrow's massive disruption can be laid squarely at the feet of the Government. The people striking tomorrow are the workers who keep this country running. The last thing they want to do is to take strike action but they have been left with no other choice by the Taoiseach's Government. It has adopted a strategy which is effectively a game of chicken, going right down to the wire in the mistaken belief that unions would blink first. Does the Taoiseach take any responsibility for his mishandling of the crisis? When will the Government make a credible pay offer so the negotiations can begin?

I do not think the Deputy was listening to what I just said. We had been engaged with the trade union movement. We did engage. The platform for negotiations clearly exists. The Deputy knows that too. Provision is made to increase public service pay next year and the year after. Those are the facts. We have cut taxes for workers, which was a key issue that was raised by the trade union movement. We have cut childcare costs, which was also an issue raised by the trade union movement, for workers and working families. We have also brought out the first ever cost-of-disability payment. We have enhanced thresholds for working families in terms of the working family payment. There are a whole range of other measures designed to try to reduce the pressure on working people, both public servants and private sector workers, in terms of the cost of living. If you combine what we did in the budget with the actual provision of €1.2 billion in the Estimates, by any objective yardstick that is a platform for negotiations. I would say something if we were dramatically changing the conditions of workers, which we are not doing, or if we were trying to cut pay, which we are not doing. We are doing the opposite. We have also expanded numbers exponentially over the past five years in the health service and in education, quite dramatically, despite what gets said. The last pay agreements were entered into in good faith, which resulted in pay rates and a pay deal that were higher than inflation. We are willing to engage with the unions again, and the Minister for public expenditure has made this very clear with the trade union movement, in terms of negotiating a new pay agreement. I genuinely believe that negotiation and dialogue are the only way to resolve this. The Government has said we are open for dialogue. We have invited in the trade union movement to avoid the level of disruption that will occur. I do not think that is necessary because we have taken measures in the budget, and if you add to that the continued expansion in the number of public servants plus the provision we have made in public service pay, there is a basis there for negotiations. Clearly, pay will be a central issue. We all, including the trade union movement, know that. The attempts the Deputy is making to try to stereotype are not fair because, in the totality of everything I have said in the past week, I have been very clear that we are open for talks and that we want to engage, and that remains our position. In fact, I said earlier - and it is true - that I offered the trade union movement an enhanced form of social dialogue to deal with the global issues we face, which have impacted for the past six years, if you think about it, including Covid, the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. All are impacting on cost-of-living pressures, and sometimes in such moments of crisis internationally a broader social approach can be helpful.

Does the Taoiseach take any responsibility for the industrial action that will take place tomorrow? Why is it that when Deputy Martin is Taoiseach he cannot get into negotiations? Why were the previous Government's public sector pay deals concluded long before this, at a time when the country had more resources? Does the Taoiseach take any responsibility for this, or is it all somehow somebody else's responsibility and somebody else's fault? Deputy Martin is the Taoiseach of the country. We will have one of the largest strikes taking place tomorrow as a result of his Government's inability to get negotiations off the ground with the unions. What is the Taoiseach going to do specifically to get negotiations going? Is he going to change tack? What he has done so far has not worked and has not been effective. There will be a strike going on tomorrow, so what will he do to avert future industrial action?

The Deputy has not put one idea before me. It is very simple: come in and talk. It is a very simple invitation to the unions: come in and talk about a new public service pay deal. We have made financial provision and we have taken significant measures to enhance the quality of life of workers. We still accept there are people who are under pressure - we know that from the cost-of-living crisis - but there is only one way to resolve this, and that is people getting around the table. The Deputy talked about the last two pay agreements and that is what actually happened. People came around the table, people engaged and we will engage. It is as simple as that.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I extend my deepest sympathies on the family members who have lost their lives in the horrific house fire in Waterford. It is truly devastating news. Our thoughts are with all those affected, with the two adults and two children who have died, and with the two children who are now in hospital. Our thoughts are also all with the fire services, the Garda and the first responders on the scene, who will be dealing with the lifelong trauma of what has occurred. We are truly grateful to them for the vital work they do in protecting people, supporting communities through tragedy and keeping the country going. They are not alone in carrying out an essential role in Irish society. There are over 300,000 public sector workers who are the backbone of our public services. Sadly, tomorrow their unions have been forced to escalate the dispute over pay by taking nationwide strike action after the Taoiseach's Government recklessly allowed the last pay deal to run out in June. Public sector workers have my solidarity and that of the Labour Party in this industrial action. Indeed, they have the support of the public. The Government has treated them with contempt in refusing to engage meaningfully with unions and making derisive remarks about workers suggesting that they want to be in this situation. Nobody wants to be on strike but they were left with no choice. The Taoiseach's so-called "workers' budget" last week was anything but. The Government has cut taxes on the very wealthiest in Ireland and has narrowed the tax base making ordinary families even more vulnerable to future economic shocks. It announced a €1.2 billion package for pay negotiations but hidden in the fine print was that this sum was also intended to cover existing costs. In reality, the Government showed no understanding of the real struggles resulting from rising bills, poorly funded public services and creaking public infrastructure at a time when the cost-of-living crisis leaves so many households running just to stand still. Inflation is running at nearly 4% and rising. The country has never had more money it seems, yet one in five children is living in poverty while many of their parents who have what used to be known as good public sector jobs are finding that is no longer a guarantee of a good life or even a basic quality of life. Something has to give. Yesterday the Government reissued the invitation to meet workers' representatives but there was nothing new in that invitation. It seems the Government is not serious about breaking the stalemate. We would love the Taoiseach to prove us wrong. Negotiating in good faith means putting cards on the table. Pay talks must do what they say on the tin and that means prioritising pay from the word go, as the unions have asked. I have three questions for the Taoiseach. How much of that €1.2 billion announced last week is actually new money for a public sector pay deal? Is the Taoiseach seriously asking unions to negotiate on the basis that the best they can expect is a 2.5% increase? Will he confirm that future pay increases for public servants will, at a minimum, protect their wages against inflation?

I think the Deputy's assertions are wrong in terms of what we did in the budget. It was a substantial budget by any yardstick. The tax package was about €1.3 billion. Basically, we increased the entry point for the higher rate of income tax by €2,500. That is significant for many workers who are paying the higher rate of tax far too early in their incomes. We have increased the main tax credits by €125 and the home carer credit by €100. We have increased the ceiling for the second USC band, increased the maximum level of help-to-buy relief, which will help workers, and young workers in particular, in buying homes, and increased the rent tax credit again to €11.50, which will help many workers. Childcare fees will be reduced from €735 a month to €550 per month. That will help families significantly. The working family payment income thresholds will rise by €30 per week helping almost 60,000 working families. Then there is the €500 cost-of-disability payment. The Deputy cannot ignore all of that as she just glibly did in her presentation. In fact, if the Deputy read the ESRI reports, or any reports, the budget helped the lowest income people the best in that they benefited more from the budget than anybody else. It did not look after the wealthy as the Deputy just threw out as a cheap shot, which is not based on facts. The Deputy can keep on saying things, as a lot of people do here, that are not factual. The last two pay agreements exceeded inflation. The last agreement exceeded inflation by 3% or 4%.

It did not.

Not true.

That is true. That is true and, again, it is not our statistics. All of this can be mediated. It is new money. A total of €1.2 billion is being provided. That is new money. It is in the Estimate and is provided for in the budget. The Deputy, as leader of the Labour Party, knows full well that the basis exists for negotiations, given what happened in the budget, that €1.2 billion is provided and that we have increased the number of public servants by over 80,000 in the past five years. Then we have people here saying we are anti public servants and do not respect them. For God's sake, can we have a bit of reality in the debate? We want to invite people in to talk about a pay agreement. Of course pay will be central; it has to be. We understand that people are under pressure. In the public sector, and in the private sector also, there are a lot of pressures on people. I again repeat that our offer was not taken up. I offered an enhanced social dialogue and we circulated ideas to the union movement in respect of that. The offer was not taken up.

The Labour Party has a very proud record. Our record is with the trade union movement and we understand negotiation. That is why we find what has happened extraordinary. We are not alone in the Labour Party in finding it very hard to understand how the Government could let a pay agreement lapse in June and not take steps to ensure a new pay agreement would be negotiated to follow from it. That is the extraordinary thing. That is the reckless behaviour from the Government. The Labour Party has a motion before the House, which will be taken on Thursday, on public sector pay. I very much hope we will hear a more substantive response from the Government to our motion than the sorts of responses we are hearing from the Taoiseach today in the Dáil, including the talk of "enhanced social dialogue". Where was that in June? Why did Government officials and Ministers not come to the table and engage meaningfully with trade unions to ensure there would not be industrial unrest and to avoid this cliff edge whereby the agreement was allowed to lapse? That is the reckless behaviour. Enhanced social dialogue means nothing if workers are not protected against rising inflation. That is the fundamental honesty the Labour Party is talking about.

There are two things to say. I fully appreciate the role of the Deputy's party in the labour movement. I delivered a paper at the Irish Labour History Society last Saturday morning outlining Fianna Fáil's relationship with labour since the formation of the party, which, by the way, has been a very constructive and proactive one. I invite Deputy Bacik to read the paper because it will give her a sense of where I have been coming from.

Maybe I will.

As I said, I come from a very strong trade union background and have full respect for workers. I offered an enhanced social dialogue but it was not taken up. "Not yet" was the response. I think people were waiting for the budget. I think the unions wanted to see what was in the budget as well. There was engagement. The budget focused on the cost of living. That was the main issue as far as we were concerned. Through the tax cuts, childcare cost cuts and disability payments - there were measures in other areas as well but it was through those three areas mainly - plus the provision for public service pay of €1.2 billion, we honestly felt the basis existed for dialogue and negotiations to take place between the Government and the unions. The Deputy knows that.

Normally, the scenario would be much different when a strike is called in the manner it has been called.

I join other speakers in expressing my horror at the devastating news that is emerging from Waterford. It is deeply shocking. The fact the Garda has declared a murder investigation is chilling. It is the second such attack this year in which children have been killed. Everyone can remember the face of Tadhg Farrell, who was killed in Edenderry. This is a dark and disturbing development in Irish society. I want to speak about the record of the Government. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is accused of breaking the law and damaging the protected disclosures system within the Garda. I put the Government on warning that if she does not answer the questions properly on this matter, Aontú will table a motion of no confidence in her. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has blocked the promised scoliosis public investigation and has devastated families. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, threatened RTÉ funding because of its fuel protests reporting and then proceeded to pull funding. The national children's hospital still has no opening date and the costs keep racking up. Meanwhile, the Tánaiste, previously Minister for Health, has still evaded accountability. The Taoiseach stood idly be as we faced the possible breakdown of peace around Drumcree and then went on to welcome a decision by the Secretary of State that he refused to do anything to bring about. The Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, is presiding over the breakdown of the free legal system in the courts. The Minister, Deputy Browne, is telling the country we have turned a corner while 17,800 people are homeless. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, oversees the highest electricity price and the worst congestion in the EU. While there is a shortage of medical professionals in this country, the Minister, Deputy Lawless, allows for the majority of medical professional places in Irish universities to be taken by people from outside of the EU.

Incorrect.

The Minister, Deputy Calleary, uses our money to pay for 100,000 free school meals that are dumped on a daily basis. In that same school system, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, oversees over 20% of students who are chronically absent every year.

I think we get the memo.

The Minister, Deputy Burke, facilitates more work visas than there are houses built in the country at the moment. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is the Minister for Tusla, where there is an omnicrisis leading to children's lives being lost. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, cuts budgets for farmers in their time of difficulty. At the start of this year, the country ground to a halt because of fuel strikes. Tomorrow, the country will grind to a halt again because of the public service strikes. The Minister, Deputy Chambers's inaction has led to the largest public sector strike in two decades and possibly a winter of discontent. The cost-of-living crisis, which in part the Government has created, has led to an actual fall of public service income. The essential workers the Government applauded and clapped during Covid are now getting poorer under this Government. The Taoiseach said he is not seeking to cut wages but, in real terms, those wages are being cut. The unions simply want to front-end negotiations. Will the Taoiseach put his intransigence aside and negotiate with those union leaders?

First, I said I will negotiate with trade union leaders, or the Government will and-----

Front-end it.

----- we have no issue with that. I have said that we are open for negotiations. We believe negotiations should take place. There is no issue there. I do take issue with everything else the Deputy said.

Hear, hear.

We will go through some of those issues. In terms of health, we have a lot of pressures in our health service. We have expanded it hugely. The Deputy did not mention the fact we are up 53% in the number of consultants in our hospitals over the past five years. There are thousands of extra nurses. We have expanded the health service. The more important point about health service is our lifespan has increased dramatically as a country. If the Deputy goes back over two decades, there has been a transformation in the quality of life that people are living in this country health-wise, and in the lifespan, which is probably the most important metric. That came about through a national strategic approach on key issues like cardiovascular health, cancer, stroke and other areas. That is the approach we need to continue to take. Vaccines are included in that as well, by the way. They have been particularly important in terms of dealing with disease. On the national children's hospital, by the way, the Minister is not blocking any inquiry. That is a fairly low sort of way of describing things-----

Ask the parents of the children.

The Minister is not blocking anything. Remy Farrell independently came forward with a report. That is not the Minister blocking something-----

Who has the executive power?

I did not interrupt the Deputy. Remy Farrell gave his best recommendation in terms of the form of inquiry he deemed to be optimal given the circumstances and the situation involved, particularly in relation to children. By the way, that is an ongoing debate in terms of inquiries - whether it is a public open inquiry under the 2021 Act or a commission of inquiry. These are legitimate issues. The Deputy should not be reducing them to simplistic derogatory soundbites. It does not do justice to the seriousness of the issue. Very often, you may reduce the number of people who participate in an inquiry if you go one route as opposed to another. We have had a challenging history with inquiries in the country in terms of the length of time and in terms of people getting satisfactory closure from inquiries. All those issues are legitimate issues for debate but not in the manner the Deputy has tried to do it, in a derogatory soundbite which does not do justice to the issues. No one stood idly by in Drumcree, by the way, but I did think of the future. I did look around the corner, unlike the Deputy-----

Hear, hear.

He just wanted to see how much space he could get to deal with Sinn Féin or others. A lot of cynicism went on there. We fully supported the right of the residents of Garvaghy Road not to have that parade.

You did not show it.

We engaged in diplomacy. The Minister for foreign affairs, Deputy McEntee, in particular, engaged with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. We were very conscious of what comes after.

We are looking at future relationships on this island. We actually believe in unity but-----

----- there are times when the Deputy's behaviour gives me the sense that he actually does not really believe in it.

It is interesting that the Taoiseach chose the health service because 1 million people are on hospital waiting lists at the moment. It is also interesting that one of the issues the Taoiseach chose to respond to was the promise that there would be a full public investigation into what happened in terms of scoliosis. Who has the executive power in relation to that decision? Remy Farrell does not have the executive power. He is not the individual responsible for fulfilling that particular promise to the families. The reason that the country is coming to standstill tomorrow is the cost-of-living crisis. Housing, electricity, gas and other fuels have increased in cost by 9.5% over the last 12 months. The Government is, in general, in large part responsible for the increases of all those issues over the last while; 45% of the cost of petrol, for example, is Government tax. It is incredibly frustrating for the Taoiseach to stand up in the Dáil and give the pretence that he is standing, willing and waiting to negotiate with unions. He is not paid big money to stand willing and waiting to negotiate with unions.

He is paid to roll up his sleeves, get in there and make sure that the sticking point here-----

-----which is the front-loading of income, is the issue that is addressed first.

The Deputy went through a long list and I do not have enough time in three minutes. If we take education, we have the highest school completion rates in Europe. We have probably the highest participation rate in third level education, all because of expansion in numbers and investment in education at primary and secondary level and particularly in third level. The Deputy mentioned the Minister, Deputy Lawless. The INSPIRE programme, which was launched last year, does not get a mention in the House because the Deputy is not into long-term stuff. The INSPIRE programme is a massive investment in research that will guarantee enterprise, new ideas, new companies and new solutions for the future of this country. That will never get a mention by the Deputy, however, because it is long term and, as far as he is concerned, it is not into the meat of politics or electoral politics. In terms of infrastructure, disability and childcare but also investment in education and research, this Government has made significant, game-changing moves in the last two budgets alone in the research space. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, has the confidence of the entire third level sector because of the work he is doing in that regard.

The Minister, Deputy Heydon, this morning brought before Cabinet measures in terms of fertiliser and fuel costs that will benefit farmers-----

-----and the Minister for Transport has a transport support scheme in relation to fuel for hauliers.