Mr. Denis Sheridan:

There are approximately 100 EWCs with a legal base in Ireland. As I previously stated, not all relationships are good. There are companies out there that are moving their bases. They are seeing the legislation in Ireland as a mechanism not to implement. One of the major factors, as Mr. Hayes said, is that it could cost up to €100,000 a year for a meeting to take place. Companies come to Ireland and put in the subsidiary requirements. That means the minimum becomes the maximum whereas previously there were agreements and so on. They can frustrate the process. As I said, negotiations with another multinational have been ongoing for five years. That company has not had to pay out expenses for an EWC for five years. It has not had to pay for hotels and things like that for five years. If we follow Mr. Hayes's analogy, that company has saved €500,000 straight off the bat by refusing to enforce workers' rights. Those companies see it as a benefit that they can do that.

As I said earlier, there was a situation whereby a company, on the first day of Brexit, automatically changed its legal base from the UK to Ireland, implemented the subsidiary requirements and refused to engage with the workers because that was all it had to do. The company stated that the workers could take it to court in Ireland if they had a problem with that situation and it would see them in five years. That was the harsh reality. That affected every worker within that company throughout Europe. Companies are willing to take that risk. That is not true of all companies. We have seen some great results and we have great relationships with some companies. However, that is one of the things that companies look at when considering whether to come to Ireland.

Collective bargaining is another aspect of the matter. Companies also know there are no collective bargaining rights in Ireland. They know they do not have to engage with the workers. They are solely coming for the purposes of EWC business, which they can frustrate. They are not covered by collective bargaining laws in Ireland and so on because we do not have any. Some of the bigger countries, including France, Germany and Spain, have stringent collective bargaining with works councils and all of that. Those companies would face opposition elsewhere but they do not in Ireland because there are no collective bargaining rights.