Mr. Michael Gleason:

What has been very evident since Covid is that the staff, down to the guy who loads the bin and the drivers, have worked so much harder because, as Senator Sherlock said, people were at home and there was more waste there. Nothing changed as regards any sort of payments. I know people who worked in the health service obviously had a more stressful job than we had but they got a little bit of something after the pandemic. We got absolutely nothing. I work for Bord na Móna and everyone in our organisation is very much subject to the rules and regulations as regards health and safety. Bord na Móna would follow all the rules and there is absolutely no problem there. Our competitors are a little bit more lax on that. There is obviously more of a cost on Bord na Móna to keep everything 100%, as it should be, but it should also be like that for the competitors.

However, it should be the same for the competitors. As such, they have a little bit of an edge. Our wages have not moved in what is probably three years.