Mr. Shane Kavanagh:

I would characterise it as unjust and unfair, and certainly as unethical. The chief executive officer made a point about shareholders at the last meeting. From a fiduciary point of view, as agents we have the same responsibility to our members. All we were doing was bringing that to the attention of the EBS. The contract side of things has yet to be sorted out properly. The EBS has always maintained that it has acted within its legal rights, but that has never been proven before the courts. As far as I am concerned, it is easy to make such a statement until it is proven not to be the case. Our primary concern at the time was to act in an ethical and professional manner. We raised issues that were of concern to our clients. Rather than being facilitated with meaningful engagement and having our concerns heard, for our troubles we were told, "You are not team players so you are gone". That is how ruthless it was. The suggestion was that those who were no longer willing to play the game were no longer considered to be team players and were therefore gone. When we asked why we were gone and whether we had done anything wrong, we were simply told that this was happening on a no-fault basis. When we asked why this was being done, the simple and callous answer we received was, "Because we can".