Mr. John Horgan:

The proportion of disputes is a very difficult one to pin down because there is the question of what is a dispute. If we include something that is resolved at local level at first instance, as most disputes are, then maybe 1% of issues go to the Labour Court. When does an issue become a dispute? If I have a disagreement with my manager, and I talk to him about it and we resolve it, that is a dispute that has been resolved locally. If we include that in the proportion, then I would say maybe 1% of disputes get raised to the highest level.

If we include the proportion of issues that are discussed nationally with the trade unions and then go further, I do not know, but it is probably something like 20%. However, I would not have that kind of intimate knowledge of how those things are resolved. Lots of things get resolved in the corridor, presumably, between the union official, the negotiators and the HR department. Most things are done in that sort of way, although there is also a formal process.

If the Deputy's question is related to the proposals the company made as part of the transformation process, in some areas, some of those have been resolved entirely. For example, the financial shared services issue has been resolved and that is operating with, as far as I am aware, no outstanding issues on that side.

In regard to the transformation process on the peat production side, as I understand it, the unions have adopted the position, which we are quite happy to go along with, that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. There is a large number of issues - up to 20 or 30, depending on how one defines them. We have been through the first round of discussion with the unions and our proposals have been put to the unions on all of those on the basis that nothing would be agreed until everything is agreed. The unions then asked us for time to consider those and asked that they would employ consultants - which we paid for, of course - to have a look at and help them with the proposals. Those consultants took some time and produced a report for the trade unions. On the basis of that and other information, the unions then asked us for a further extension of the time they had agreed in order to prepare an alternative plan. We said we were happy to listen to their alternative plan.

This morning, at this very moment, the trade unions are presenting their alternative plan to us in the Labour Relations Commission, as agreed. We will look at all of those alternative proposals to see whether they can be accommodated. If they can be accommodated, we will be happy to do that. However, the unions have agreed with us that the bottom line is the savings must be made. They are proposing alternative ways of arriving at the savings and we have said to them we will be happy to accept their alternatives, provided they are real savings and will add up to what we want to do.

That is the proper strategy for the company to have adopted. I fully accept that other Deputies would say another approach ought to have been adopted. The proposal we have adopted is in accordance with the protocol and with good industrial relations practice. In so far as the detail is concerned, I am happy that it is correct but I have not been, and will not be, involved in the nitty-gritty of it. On the broad picture, I think we are doing what we intended to do. I want to emphasise that every step taken in the Labour Relations Commission has been agreed at the Labour Relations Commission, except that the unions have asked us on two occasions to extend a deadline they had agreed to, and we agreed to extend the deadline twice in the interests of hearing their point of view.

I have no problem in defending the company's position in regard to that strategy. I think it is the right one for us to have adopted and if other Deputies think that another strategy should have been adopted that the unions did not agree to, they are free to put that forward, but it is not one that has been agreed. I want to emphasise this point. We have moved at every stage throughout this negotiation with the agreement of the trade unions as to the stages that we would go through.