Mr. Seamus O'Loughlin:

I have the documentary evidence to back it up. I will give the committee another example. I brought the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to the Minister's attention. Broadly speaking, that stipulates that an employee cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average. We had staff members hitting 70 hours a week on average over a period of six to ten months. Nobody was prepared to grasp that nettle because there was no upside to doing so. The institution was turning a blind eye to it. Now it has been raised and resolved. A friend of mine said to me that I would be the most hated man in ESB because I would cost front-line staff members real money. However, I understand is the general feeling is that the company feels it got away with this for a long time but now the cat is out of the bag and it must comply. I did not feel there was an atmosphere in which raising issues like that would be viewed positively. Doing so would create work for those above one, which was hard to handle.