Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I have needed to concede this point a number of times. They do not find the term "trade unions" amenable.

On a more serious point, the staff unions were concerned about their apparent exclusion while everyone else seemed to have been remembered. Will the Minister of State convey this point? I am grateful for the positive response, which deals with my issue completely, but it is also important that people consider how partnership operates. I am not necessarily referring to social partnership. For years, we have spent money developing partnerships. We are trying to create an innovative knowledge-based society, one in which workers are being told to bring their brains to work. If they are doing that, we want to be able to use and focus their knowledge. This is the case in every sector, not just the postal sector. I have made the same remark in respect of the Civil Service, in that civil servants are often ignored in large transformational processes. Bosses seem to believe they know all. Wisdom is not concentrated in any one place. It tends to emerge from all sorts of experiences.

This should not come down to having a proposal box in a corner. Instead, people should be engaged with and have their opinions, concerns etc. heard. The Minister of State must know this. Just this morning, I received a telephone call from someone in a hospital department wherein there will be a major transformational change. That person read about the change in the newspapers. He was not opposed to whatever the change might bring, but he will now spend a sleepless weekend because he does not know what the change will be. Often, that people are not being asked leads to problems. Let us anticipate the problems in advance and deal with them.

This is a long-winded way for me to say the amendment is important. I fully support it.