Mr. Ultan Courtney:

If I had a pound for every time someone told me it was going to be the end of the world next week, I would be a very rich man. The commission listens to the submissions and the cases made in relation to employers who say that they are having difficulties. Some of that is anecdotal but we have all seen evidence of it where restaurants, for example, are not opening on Mondays or Tuesdays and maybe hours are being reduced as a result of that. There is evidence that employers are under pressure. I would like better evidence if I could get it. I would like a situation going forward where we have a good fact-based decision making process. The significance of the Maynooth report was that it suggested we could move forward on pay. We have done that but we have also been prudent because of the shocks happening in the economy at the moment.