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

I thank the witnesses for attending and for their work on this. It is a complicated area but it is also very necessary. In the opening submission, the Department explicitly stated it is not in respect of any one previous company insolvency. I understand that, but it is helpful to think about this in terms of what we know has happened. Certain high-profile cases, such as those involving Debenham's, Clerys and TalkTalk, that brought the issue of collective redundancy into the public consciousness and sparked a debate. I understand that the general scheme was not drafted in the context of a particular case; it could not be. If we had a time machine and nipped back in time and made these amendments before the Debenham's workers were made redundant, how would it have been different? Will the witnesses talk us through that? It would be useful.