Withering criticism was expressed about advice given by the Economic and Social Research Institute to companies considering expansion.
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said that at a time of widespread job losses it was not acceptable for any State-sponsored body like the ESRI to come out with a stupid proposal that there should be a scaling back of the development of industry. It was not acceptable that after 10 years of wage restraint we were being asked to accept a situation where workers' demands for average improvements in their pay and conditions should lead to the ESRI advising companies that they should start scaling down. Mr O'Toole called for an immediate debate on what he termed the ridiculous and specious report.
Mr Joe Costello (Lab) said the ESRI had made an absolutely ridiculous exhortation to businesses not to consider expanding because such a step might fuel wage rises. There were close on 220,000 people on the live register, and the ESRI would be better advised to begin thinking in terms of how we could generate indigenous business.
Acting leader of the House, Mr John Dardis (PD) said normally ESRI quarterly reports were useful documents. In this instance, he knew the institute was worried about competitiveness and wage inflation. But he shared the view that it seemed extraordinary that in the event of a company being offered extra business, it should be asked to decline it.