Mr. Tom Geraghty:

As members of the implementation body - that is, when wearing that hat - our task is to ensure that these processes work. It is a matter between the individual unions and the individual employers to deal with any wish on the part of an individual employer to either reduce or eliminate an allowance and to use the processes that were set up under the Croke Park agreement. However, were the Deputy to ask me a question, I would say that in the vast bulk of cases, it is quite likely that the unions concerned will use the full processes. As Ms King noted earlier, it is difficult to envisage circumstances in which an employer would come along seeking to take money out of someone's pocket only for the union merely to respond that this would be okay.