He would never have let it happen.

His underlings, as Gary refers to him, would have done the deal and then over a pint of bass and drum chondra and Guinness for the union guys, yeah, that this would all be hammered out.

And there was a certain, maybe a certain amount of truth in that.

I certainly grew up with the strong feeling that Fianna Fáil had a very, very strong influence on the public sector unions in particular.

And I think...

That would have been true far more than, for example, the Labour Party would have felt they would have liked to have had.

And then on the opposite page, Leo Varadkar gives a good commentary, I think, in outlaying the pressures on people and the difference between minimum wage and the living wage.

When you speak to a lot of your colleagues, they say actually a lot of the investment has gone into administering the health services as opposed to directing monies towards front lines.