Mr. Neil McDonnell:

I have sat with European trade unions in a European context with the European Trade Union Confederation, which does not happen here. Government does not recognise the small enterprise sector in terms of collective bargaining. There is a much more developed and mature trade union-employer network and interaction in European countries, which we would love to see here because, traditionally, we have not seen unionised businesses scale in Ireland. We have to come up with an answer to how that will happen. We want to participate in that. We are knocking on the door with the Department and the Department of the Taoiseach all the time looking for recognition for SMEs but that has not yet come.