asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development if he will confirm that no statutory wage control is being contemplated as part of any economic plan by his Department.

I would envisage that the preparation of an economic plan would involve consultation with and voluntary co-operation from all the economic agents whose activities are directly and indirectly affected. Statutory control would be an unlikely accompaniment of any such participation.

The Minister said in reply to an earlier question that he has in mind producing an initial economic plan. Would he accept that it is getting the entire planning mechanism of the new Government off to a bad start if, simply for the convenience of speed in the production of such a plan, he does not go through the process of consultation with the unions and employers? I would ask him to reconsider his decision in relation to this. Even for the initial plan, there should be discussions with unions and employers.

If the time span permits it, I will do so.

Do I understand from the reply to this fairly explicit question that the Minister for Economic Planning and Development is ruling out the device of statutory wage control at this stage? I would ask the Minister to give a simple yes or no.

I said that statutory control would be an unlikely accompaniment of any such participation.

This is not an answer.

Deputy Colley tried to introduce one.

And succeeded in getting a national agreement. Does Deputy Browne remember that?