Mr. Ger Gibbons:

She is taking a very progressive stance which we welcome and would like to see enacted. We have concerns that the debate about red tape and administrative burdens would undermine workers' rights. We hear talk about reducing administrative burdens by 25% but we do not know where this will come from and it seems to be quite arbitrary. Does that mean you abolish legislation that provides opportunities for Irish businesses in the European Single Market? It is a crude mechanism for reducing administrative burdens. We have concerns about how that could be done in the future. I think Dr. McDonnell mentioned in his submission other provisions about the SME test. We are not opposed to looking at genuine disproportionate administrative burdens but a lot of these things are there for a good reason. We have genuine concerns about taking a crude approach to reduce them by 25%.