Asking for a debate on the teachers' dispute, Mr Joe Costello (Lab) said a unique position had arisen from the Taoiseach's intervention in an industrial relations matter with an article in yesterday's Irish Times.
"It may not be megaphone diplomacy, but certainly newspaper diplomacy when it is taking place at a distance. I am getting very worried that this particular dispute is being hyped up in an unnecessary fashion, because normally this dispute would be dealt with solely by the Minister for Education."
Mr Costello said he was apprehensive that the scene was being set for a showdown that would be difficult to resolve. He would prefer proper negotiations with the teachers rather than statements from a distance.
Ms Mary Jackman (FG) said she was disturbed by the aggressive and confrontational tone adopted in the article. "Certainly, teachers do not take strike action lightly. I would expect that there would be negotiation rather than confrontation at this late stage and I am appealing for some conciliation, for discussion so that the dispute can be resolved before next Tuesday."
Mr Brendan Ryan (Lab) said if teachers went on strike they would not be paid. When gardai had gone on strike they had taken a deliberately deceptive sick day off. They had been paid as if they had been ill. The Government then had been guilty of a dereliction of duty by conspiring to pay those gardai. It was a bit rich to strike moral poses about teachers who at least would honestly go on strike.
Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) said he could envisage a situation in which consumers could lose confidence in the safety of meat to such an extent that they would give up eating it altogether. Food safety constituted the biggest threat to the food and agricultural sectors, he said.
"Here in Ireland, the number of cases of BSE being reported is rising - not falling, as we should be entitled to expect by now, if the measures put previously into place were really working. If the agriculture sector across Europe had been keeping its eye on the right ball, it would have realised by now the total and overriding importance of dealing effectively with BSE."
Dr Mary Henry (Ind) called for a total ban on meat and bone meal in animal feeds. She said Britain had introduced such a prohibition and France was looking at a similar ban because of the possibility of the spread of BSE-type disease to lambs. The House was debating the importance of protecting the gains from Agenda 2000 in the new World Trade Organisation round. Mr Peter Callanan (FF) said he knew from his contacts with farmers from across the Border that they wished to work on an all-Ireland basis. Such an approach to agriculture would ensure that farmers in all parts of the island would be better off.