Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I apologise that I was not here for the opening addresses. I had to be elsewhere. A couple of years ago, I sent a circular letter to all the businesses in my constituency and one of the responses I got was from people the witnesses are trying to defend at the moment. I made an intervention at the time and spoke to the then Minister of State responsible, who was Brian Hayes. My timing was probably not good because at that stage the Government was under huge pressure to save money, come hell or high water. I suspect that was part of the reason I did not make progress.