Dr. Peter Rigney:

Yes. We have members in the private and public sectors and do not distinguish between the two.

An injustice is an injustice no matter from what sources the wages.

I wish to make some points about policy. This situation occurred over a long period. We must dig deep into the causes in a reflective rather than in a blame culture manner. We must find out how we got here and make sure we do not reach this position again. We forget that these things can turn around fairly fast. I remember a couple of years ago listening to a programme on Raidió na Gaeltachta where someone from the Donegal Údarás area said we had a real problem because we had run out of labour which was a time just before the bust so things do move up and down. People now think we are great because we have full employment. Britain had military and civil conscription in wartime but it also had an unemployment level of between 2.5% and 3%, which is full employment. I hope Ireland has full employment again. That is the time to look at what is happening in the labour market and why people feel they cannot take up employment.

The question was asked if there is a cohort of people who do not want to take up an employment offer. If there is then very few rational employers would wish to employ such people. That is the problem and that is the contradiction.