Mr. Liam Berney:

Before Senator Gavan asked the question about the Duffy-Cahill report, I was just going to quote from one of the provisions. Proposal 1 aims to "ensure that employees will have

the opportunity to consult with their employer for a period of not less than 30 days before any collective redundancy ... [can take] effect ... whether the employer is insolvent or not.". If that proposal had been implemented and had been a legal requirement in advance of the liquidation of Debenhams, perhaps we would not be here discussing the issues we are discussing today. Perhaps the employer would have felt they would have had to come to an understanding with the employees about how the assets they had at their disposal could have been used to address the concerns of employees in that situation. I simply wanted to make that point.