Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, but that does not really matter. There is a collective agreement, workers have gone through the process and balloted on it. They get held to every line of it, including the compromise parts, in the run-up to a redundancy but I appreciate the point Ms O'Dea makes.

I have a question relating to the fines, some of which are quite small. There is a fine of €5,000 for a failure to consult or for a failure to notify the Minister but a fine of €250,000 where redundancies take place before the end of the 30-day consultation period. A fine of €5,000 is not massively dissuasive. Was consideration not given to some figure that would cause people to think twice? A fine of €5,000 does not seem serious.