Mr. Denis Sheridan:

The ETUC has been very supportive. It has seen at first hand the issues we have been having in Ireland. Through its work with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, it is fully updated. It has been able to get us meetings with MEPs such as Gabriele Bischoff and Dennis Radtke. It has supported us. It has campaigned in Europe for the changes Ireland needs. It has been of great assistance and a great support. The ETUC has done a campaign based on the fact that Ireland took a complaint to the EU. It has been utilising that, which was referred to in Mr. Radtke's report. It has been pushing that. One of the examples it gives is that of Finland, where the directive also needs to be changed. The system in Finland requires people to walk into the local police station and make an official complaint to the police that the EWC has been breached. Finland also has issues.

We are probably one of the first countries to make an official complaint, as we have, regarding the directive and how it is transposed. The ETUC wants to see this across all of Europe. It is supporting Ireland and has been of great assistance. The same is true of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The ETUC has been pushing the Tánaiste for the purposes of getting that report through so the form of the directive is recast to remove many of the anomalies within the member states that are deficient.

Ireland is probably leading the way with what we have done to date.