The Fine Gael spokesman on public enterprise and tourism, Mr Jim Higgins, predicted the collapse of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).

"What we are witnessing is the break-up of partnership and the dismantlement of the national consensus so assiduously built up and cultivated by successive governments since the late 1980s.

"What we are witnessing is the return to the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s when Ireland had one of the worst industrial relations records in the developed world in terms of the number of strikes, the number of days lost and the knock-on consequences for the economy."

Mr Higgins, who was introducing his party's private member's motion critical of the Government's industrial relations record, said that national leadership was badly needed to salvage the situation.

But, he added, it was so markedly absent or non-existent "right from the very top - from a Taoiseach who refuses to take tough decisions and who seems to sniff the air every morning to see what way the wind is blowing or in what direction the crowd have gone before deciding what to say, right through to the various Ministers in whose different sectoral areas industrial chaos has broken out".

The party's spokesman on enterprise and trade, Mr Charles Flanagan, said that rather than banning strikes by way of legislation, a voluntary code of practice should be agreed by the social partners to maintain essential services throughout the State.

"Fine Gael urges the Government, the social partners and the Labour Relations Commission to put in place appropriate safeguards necessary for dealing with disputes in services where strike action or interruption could endanger life, cause major damage to the national economy or widespread hardship to the community, particularly the health services, energy supplies, water and sewerage services, fire, ambulance and rescue services and public transport."

The Labour spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Emmet Stagg, said the Government's term of office had witnessed the worst industrial relations crisis the State had seen since the 1980s. Not everybody had gained equally from the unprecedented level of growth.

"Workers who were asked to accept modest levels of increase have seen directors of their own companies rake in increases many times the level of inflation.

"Recent figures suggest that Michael Smurfit makes £4,150 per day. Tom Mulcahy, who runs Allied Irish Banks, earns just £3,640 per day. Yet we have tens of thousands of workers who are earning just about the national minimum wage of £4.40 per hour."

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said the strength of the Government's social partnership approach had been based on the realism of the partners.

"We have been realistic about Ireland's place in the global economy, recognising the need to adapt to what we cannot change, and the need to change things under our control in line with the needs of the time.