Mr. Vincent Jennings:

I am not dodging the question, and never would, but unless we sort out the energy issue and give these businesses back the viability that they have always had, we will not be able to talk about wages, salaries, training or all of those necessary things, because the businesses will not be there. I mean that sincerely. Yesterday, at the meeting of our national executive, one of our representatives said that he had spoken to a retailer who had been disconnected by the ESB. That is the seriousness of the matter and it is what is going on. I know that this is a general catch-all meeting on challenges and the like, but we are imploring this committee to focus on what our problem is. Our current problem is most certainly energy. It follows on from that if we have business, we have to make further commitments, we have to look at PRSI and the money that is being gathered by the State ostensibly for certain things but not being spent. There are billions of euro for training that are not being used. Until we can actually secure our businesses, I ask the committee members to listen and hear me. That is the priority now.