Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

What Patricia King is arguing, and it is commendable and makes sense, is that this is an urgent issue in the midlands, that the local people are losing confidence, as are the workforce, and that the current mechanisms are not working. The joint industrial relations mechanisms may suffice for some of the particular industrial relations issues but, as the Minister says, it is much bigger and broader than this. What we heard today from the union officials is they believe the Workplace Relations Commission is very keen and happy to take on such a role to act as an immediate facilitation point to bring in wider stakeholders.

I do not see what we have to lose from using that avenue to do what we have historically done in difficult circumstances like this, use a partnership approach.