Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Plunkett. If I could address a few questions to Ms Ní Bhrógáin, greenfield organising is tough and I commend the Communications Workers Union on the work it is doing on this. This is important work to be done.

In terms of organising these workers, bringing them together and giving them a collective voice, what impact does the outsourcing have? It seems there is a bit of an "Upstairs, Downstairs" situation going on. There are directly employed and outsourced workers. There is clearly a comparator. I would say the comparator exists with An Garda Síochána. Even if it did not, there is clearly a comparator with directly employed personnel. Will Ms Ní Bhrógáin outline for us briefly the challenges she has faced as an organiser and how tough it is, particularly to organise this group of workers because this is new work? This work did not exist when I was growing up. This is new work and I would say it requires new regulation.