Mr. Tom Hayes:

I will ask Ms McKeon to respond in a moment. Very strangely, I agree with Mr. Sheridan. Deputy Bruton is quite right that I was involved in the drafting of the legislation back in the 1990s and that there was a great deal of apprehension on the part of the American multinational community about it. People are always frightened of the new and the unknown, but the EWC has turned out to be a considerable communication channel between central management and employee representatives from across Europe. Both parties have learned how to work with the process, and the type of fear and apprehension that existed 20-odd years ago does not exist any more. The very fact that I am here today speaking not on behalf of these companies but with a knowledge of the way a lot of them think about these things is proof of that. If we were still fearful of the legislation, we would not be here asking for change. We are here asking for change to make the legislation more effective, not less, in order to make sure that the forum for dialogue between employees and their representatives, as put well by Mr. Sheridan, works effectively and that if there are problems - and there always will be problems because that's life - we have an effective way of resolving them.

I will anticipate a question about the penalties. Mr. Sheridan is right that the maximum penalty under Irish law is something like €12,000. It was £10,000. Would the business community be overly concerned if that were looked at in light of today's values? Provided it was a somewhat reasonable figure, I do not see that it would cause a great deal of concern. If the numbers were to be updated and uprated, I would not see that as a major cause for concern.