Mr. Ultan Courtney:

No. We do not have designated or nominated organisations. We have people who have expressed an interest through the PAS in representing the employer or employee interest. I do not believe there are any nominating bodies as such but, certainly from my experience, no matter whether the representatives come from the independent employer side or the employee side, they are very knowledgeable about what they are doing.

The other safeguard we have in mind for that is that we take many submissions. I think we have taken 297 submissions. We talk to various organisations, including ISME, IBEC and ICTU to get their insights. Much of what the Deputy articulated is what many smaller companies, in particular, are saying. He is quite correct that there is a smaller profile of companies that are entrepreneurs who have taken considerable risk and find the challenge of business at present extremely strong. They tell us they find it difficult to absorb or pass on any costs and, at the end of the day, to keep going. That does not mean they will not. They will do whatever they can to safeguard their investment and jobs going forward because they want to be there in the future.