There would not be another social partnership agreement if the current one was breached, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, warned in the Seanad.
He was defending the Government's stand on the threatened nurses' strike. The Minister demanded that all political parties make it clear whether they agreed with the principles of social partnership. If this were done it could facilitate the sending out of a coherent message, not just to the nursing unions, but to all unions.
That message was that "if we want to have another partnership agreement, which will depend on agreement among all the social partners as a result of detailed discussions, you cannot proceed into that procedure on the basis that you breach present agreements in the event that you are going to have another one. Because there won't be another one. There won't be another partnership agreement if we breach the present agreement."
He continued: "There are parties in this House and the Lower House who are telling the people that your prosperity will be preserved; your prosperity will be gained by throwing out the very system that has brought us the prosperity that was unknown and unprecedented in the last dozen years.
"I want that cleared here tonight. You can have all the rhetoric, all the currying of favours with sectional groups. I want to know what are the parties' assessments of the national interest at this time. Because that is what is motivating this Government. "That is why the Government has taken on this responsibility by taking the position it is taking."
Senators were debating a Fine Gael motion calling on the Government and nursing unions to agree to a cooling-off period to find a solution to the impasse.
By 25 votes to 20, a Government amendment was carried. This called on the four nursing unions to call off the threatened strike and to pursue their case in discussions between the Government and the social partners on a new national programme.