Ms Patricia King:

I will bring a number of things to the Deputy's attention on it. We are, of course, in contact with our colleagues in the TUC, STUC and WTUC because there are circumstances for the TUC that it never expected to be engaged in. The general secretary of the TUC had a meeting here with us and then the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade also met her. One of the key issues is how hard-won rights and protections, mainly derived from EU legislation and directives, will be maintained. There are worrying signs in this regard. First, the British Prime Minister has indicated the big repeal Bill. What happens when all the current legislation is repealed? What will it be replaced with? Clearly, there are issues and there is huge uncertainty but people are guessing.

Submissions are being made in Ireland, particularly related to the manufacturing industry, by IBEC. In its view, an average manufacturing worker - and it links itself to the National Competitiveness Council for these figures - earns £6 more than his or her counterpart in the UK. It is arguing that labour cost is one of the key pieces for it in terms of competitiveness and if its members are to continue to trade with the UK, as they wish, this issue will have to be dealt with.

IBEC reference labour and capital costs as the two major issues, however, in any submissions it majors on labour costs. IBEC relates it greatly to currency fluctuation. During recent weeks, there has been much fluctuation. While it may be settling a little during the past week, in the previous weeks it has been volatile. IBEC judges that if the currency went to a value of 90 cent, we would be talking about an hourly rate difference of approximately £7.50. We know where this is going. Workers will probably, in some cases, be involved in a race to the bottom. The only way companies will be able to continue to trade and do business will be at the lowest possible price. These arguments are being made.

Dr. Healy made a point about displacement. However, while the financial services may produce jobs, they are no use to those who are losing manufacturing jobs in one part of the country. All the statistics point to the fact that the jobs we are talking about, in many cases, are in indigenous industries and regionally based. Particularly in manufacturing, we could face a very strong shock, depending on how it pans out. It was very early in the day when we met the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, with the TUC general secretary. We made the point that we needed the Minister to say he would argue on behalf of Irish workers, that part of the deal is not to produce a race to the bottom, that EU directives will have to continue to apply here and that it will not be delivered on the backs of people who will either lose their jobs or have their incomes reduced as a result of it. From our perspective, it is very worrying.

Deputy Niall Collins said he felt the trade union movement had much to say on this and indicated that it was proper that we be involved. This is not necessarily the practice. There is a consultative stakeholder consultation committee in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I have had to write to this committee. Everybody is involved in the consultation committee, except anybody who represents a worker. Thousands of unionised workers in the food and beverage industry, who are covered by collective agreements, are being talked about at the consultation committee. They have farmers, producers and representatives of small firms, but not a sign of a worker. We were not alerted that the consultation committee was being established. We found out in the usual way one does. I have contacted the Secretary General to ask the Department's intentions about inviting us.

As has often been the case in history, when companies get into severe difficulty, very often the trade union is the only group that goes in and tries to save the day. I have been involved in a number of them over the years. This is not an empty or vacuous claim. Only for the collective agreement which the trade union movement hammered out, Bausch and Lomb would have been gone, which would have been a major loss to the country in terms of jobs. I was involved in it and I know the details of it. Given that the people most likely to lose are the workers, I do not understand why the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has taken this approach. We hope we have something positive to offer. Dr. Healy mentioned retraining. Manufacturing is strongly unionised, we have very good insight into this, and why people would not want to tap into our insight is beyond me.