Mr. Patrick King:

The ideal position would be for employer bodies and unions all agreeing to move to the next stage. We could end up with one side saying we should move to the next stage and parts of the other side saying we should or maybe we should not. The option is there for the Minister, under legislation, to ask the Labour Court to set up a joint labour committee and move ahead even without the agreement I am seeking. The ideal position would be one of agreement. One of the management groups has been supportive all the way along but it is the smaller of the groups. The larger group represents 66 of the well over 100 schools and I will know next week where it stands.