Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I do not see the unions in the same corporate sense as the two employer groups mentioned by the Deputy because of their role.

I have been always of the view that just because workers go in the front door does not mean they leave their brains behind them. Unions have made a valuable contribution to change in many places in which I have been involved which would never change in a month of Sundays, where there was then a crisis and a real change. I expect that the individuals here and the people who have been working in the bogs over the years know as much about how to run the company as the corporate management who have been given a specific responsibility. It is also a matter of trying to maximise their capacity, especially those who wish to stay on working in the region and in the industry, and to determine how best that can be done so that their skills, knowledge and memory are utilised to the maximum. To me, they are an invaluable component of what change may take place.