Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) warned that the Government would be responsible for "disbanding" the Programme for Partnership and Fairness if it failed to honour its obligation to pursue policies which would ensure low inflation.
Mr O'Toole, who is vice-president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, renewed his call for a debate on the upward inflation trend. He said people were waking up to the fact that their pensions, social welfare payments and wage increases due under the National Partnership arrangements would have been eroded completely by the time they got them. "This is just simply going to absolutely pull the rug from under the social partnership."