It would be wrong to allow this occasion to pass without registering the treachery that was committed yesterday by the Government, in particular, the Labour Party, in ramming through the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill. The Tánaiste is a former ITGWU official and member of a party that emerged from battles over the right to join a trade union of one's choice that brought this city to a standstill. That he would support a Bill designed to threaten workers that should they dare to say "No" again, they would be met by further cuts is almost unbelievable and a new low for a party that we did not believe could sink any lower.

It is a peculiar form of democracy, where one speaks of free engagement and negotiation, when the Government effectively offers workers a gun and tells them to either shoot themselves or it will blow their heads off. This approach is becoming an all too common feature of the Labour Party in government. It is exactly the same position it took with the hated home tax when it told people to hand over the money or it would forcibly deduct it from them with penalties. The Labour Party has become the promoter of dictatorial legislation because it knows it has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary people and does not have a mandate for the policies it is trying to ram through. Where is the Government's emergency legislation in the public interest to deal with the multinational corporations which only pay 2% taxation or the massive salaries and bonuses of bankers? It is nowhere to be seen because the Labour Party is not only complicit in these attacks but at the forefront of them.

The Bill passed by the Government last night goes far beyond a wage cut. It undermines fundamental trade union principles, namely, the right to negotiate one's terms and conditions of employment and the right to join a trade union. The Government has denied these rights to a section of the public service and gone even further by introducing enabling legislation that will allow a future Minister to change the terms and conditions of public sector employees. The Tánaiste and his colleagues, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, and Deputies Keaveney and Wall earned their living from the trade union movement. Half the Deputies opposite used trade union members' funds to get elected before betraying them in this House by introducing anti-union legislation.

They are still taking the money.

Is the Government going to enforce legislation against unions such as the TUI, the ASTI and the CPSU, which have all made a stand against it? There are more than two choices.

They got a bargain.

They may not decide to shoot themselves or to allow the Government to shoot them. They may, in the public interest, turn the gun on this Administration. They will have all of our support if they do so.

There is a great deal of shooting going on.

Guns and roses.

The Labour Party will not take lectures from a Deputy who could not remain in a party with only two members.

The Tánaiste's party has lost a few members.

There may be only two members left in it when this Government is done, namely, the Tánaiste and Deputy Rabbitte.

Deputy Clare Daly is right-----

Order, please. The Tánaiste should be allowed to respond.

-----in that I do have experience of trade union work. From that experience I learned that the first thing any member of a trade union wants is his or her job. It cannot have escaped the Deputy's attention that this Government is engaged in protecting employment. In this instance, it is seeking to protect employment within the public service. The second thing one must have before one comes to address the issue of pay is the means to actually pay people. This country was on the edge of bankruptcy when the Government took office. Since we came to power we have been obliged to work to restore the country's finances in order that we will be in a position to pay the wages and salaries of those who work in the public service and to ensure that public services will be maintained. As the Deputy knows, the approach we have taken has been to negotiate with the trade unions. However, those unions rejected the offer that was put on the table in the first instance and that is why we entered into a second round of negotiations. I compliment Mr. Kieran Mulvey and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, on the work they did in negotiating settlements with each of the individual unions.

Pay reductions will be on a scaled basis. This means that the core pay of those on under €65,000 per annum will not be reduced. Pay above that amount will be reduced on a scaled basis. We are of the view that where pay reductions are necessary, they must be introduced on a graduated basis and those on the highest levels of pay must bear the greatest burden.

Legislating in respect of multinational corporations and the payment of tax must be done on an international basis. When I attended the ministerial meeting of the OECD yesterday, I signed our commitment to the international effort being made to deal with the issue of tax avoidance - either by individuals or companies - on an international scale. We support the efforts in which the OECD is engaging in order to deal with this problem. In the course of our current Presidency of the European Union, we have managed to secure agreement on a regulation to place a cap on the remuneration of bankers on an EU-wide basis.

The history books will show that I have been a member of fewer political parties than the Tánaiste. One difference between us is that I remain on the right side of the barricades and have not crossed over to the enemy camp. I do not believe the Tánaiste will be able to state the same on his CV.

We thought the Deputy had abandoned Leon Trotsky.

Will Deputy Daly give me a copy of Leon Trotsky's memoirs?

Better Leon Trotsky than Joseph Stalin.

Deputy Clare Daly should be allowed to continue, without interruption.

The problem is that there is a major discrepancy between the Tánaiste's words, on one hand, and the reality that exists, on the other. Perhaps it is because he has been hanging around so much with those in Fine Gael that he has become almost indistinguishable from them. It has not escaped my notice that 87,000 people have been forced to leave this country, that we have massive levels of unemployment and that last month was the third worst for retail sales since the crisis began. It is beyond me how taking €300 million out of the pockets of public sector workers and millions more from homeowners in the form of a property tax is going to lead to growth and benefit the private sector. The Tánaiste referred to freely negotiating. If the Government freely negotiated this deal, then why does it not let workers vote on it? What the Government has done is to introduce legislation which will have a similar - if not greater - impact as the deal in the event that public sector workers freely reject it. Are there any lengths to which the Tánaiste will not go in order to protect the wealthy in this society from a fair system of taxation?

Rubbish.

Why did the Government not implement a 48% tax rate on incomes over €100,000? Such a move would have yielded an amount equivalent to that which it will accrue in the aftermath of the butchery it has perpetrated in respect of public sector workers.

We introduced the largest amount of wealth taxes ever in the budget and the Deputy voted against them.

Wealth taxes. They are taxes on debt.

The Government is even taxing hearses.

It is all very well to mouth off about wealth taxes and then vote against proposals relating to such taxes when they are put to the House.

Give us a break.

Why is Deputy Clare Daly encouraging those who live in mansions worth over €1 million not to pay property tax? That is pure hypocrisy.

That is pure dishonesty. We proposed a wealth tax and it is well the Tánaiste knows it.

The number of people who are unemployed has not escaped my notice. I hope it will not escape the Deputy's notice that we are making some modest progress in this regard. The quarterly national household survey - which is being published about now - will show that during the past year the private sector has created over 2,000 jobs per month. That is in stark contrast with the 250,000 jobs that were lost in the three years before we took office. The survey will also show that, for the first time since we came to power, the unemployment has dropped below 14% and stands at 13.7%. That is still too high, particularly in view of the fact that so many young people are unemployed.

That is because half the population has left the country.

That is why we are taking action to deal with the problem of youth unemployment.

Some 300,000 people have emigrated.

When I attended its ministerial meeting yesterday, I agreed with the Secretary General of the OECD that we will work together on a youth action plan for this country. That plan will be part of the youth guarantee that has been agreed at European Union level. On Tuesday, when I was negotiating the European Union budget for the next seven years, I proposed that the money which is available to address youth unemployment and which will have an impact in this country should be frontloaded in 2014 and 2015 in order that we might deal with this critical problem on a more urgent basis.

It is not enough just to talk, moan and complain about the problem-----

The Tánaiste did that for five years.

He has been doing it for many years.

-----to condemn those trying to deal with it or to hide behind a barricade.

Correct.

No ballot.

The Tánaiste is actually engaging in an attack on himself and his own record.

It takes a great deal more-----

The Tánaiste is still running from his past.

I thought we had moved past the stage of shouting people down.

-----to actually deal with the problem.

Like burning the bondholders.

I sometimes get the impression that Deputy Clare Daly would be happier if our problems got worse-----

Correct.

-----and if people remained unemployed in order that she might continue to complain.

It is time we solved the unemployment problem, got people back to work, attracted investment, created jobs and encouraged people to move on with their lives. That is what the Government is determined to do.

Hear, hear. Well said.

It is time to move out.

Complaining and moaning does not get one anywhere.

That completes Leaders' Questions.

The Tánaiste has just receive a ringing endorsement from Deputy Durkan.

Let us not forget to what the Government of which Deputy Martin was a member signed us up.

Will the Deputy be appearing on Vincent Browne's show?

I honestly believed that two and a half years into the lifetime of this Dáil Members would have realised that they will get nowhere by shouting down other people.

Hear, hear.

The Ceann Comhairle should inform Deputy Durkan of that fact.

We live in democracy and people, including Deputy Mattie McGrath, are entitled to make their points and ask questions.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

They should also listen to the answers provides by the person to whom the questions are directed. We will proceed to the business.

The Ceann Comhairle is quite right.

The Ceann Comhairle has the support of Deputy Boyd Barrett.

It is dangerous to apologise in here because one could have a motion of no confidence tabled against one.

The Tánaiste should not be giving us ideas.