Mr. Adrian Cummins:

To respond to Senator Ó Clochartaigh, inspectors from the Workplace Relations Commission visit premises to identify levels of non-compliance. If an inspector enters a restaurant and it does not have a poster on display outlining this or that, it is deemed to be non-compliant. What is the risk in such a case? Our argument has always been that a review is needed of the way in which businesses are classified as being non-compliant and what are the risk levels. From the information we have received from members, inspectors go through every minute detail and examine records dating back 12 months, two years and in some cases three years. It is a very detailed, scientific review of the business and it will find that a business may be perfect in every respect, except perhaps a failure to display a poster. In such cases, the business will still be found to be non-compliant. It is a little like the national car test where cars may have to be brought back for a second inspection. From dealing with members daily, I can safely say that 99.99% of them are compliant. Perhaps the survey will show a different figure but I would like to see the results.