Mr. Brian Nolan:

The agreements in question would be the construction industry wages and conditions of employment agreement, the construction industry pension assurance and sick pay agreement, the electrical contracting industry employment agreement and the overhead powerline industry agreement. These were all collective agreements between the appropriate parties in Ireland, namely the employer representative bodies and a trade union or group of trade unions, in addition to which their registration with the Labour Court gave universal application to the terms and conditions to a worker or body of workers from outside the Irish jurisdiction. Universal application is a key factor of this proposed legislation and something we would support on the basis that we could return to a position where universal application would provide protection to workers and employers alike throughout Ireland.

One example of the effect of universal application was 96 Serbian linesmen employed by the Belgrade-----