Ms Teodora Corcoran:

We can do that now. A co-operative is basically a group of people who work together and aspire to a goal. They have to use the services and are very often employees. They do not always distribute the profit they make. They might just put it back in the co-operative, lock it, or put it in a legal reserve. Co-operatives usually operate on the basis of one member, one vote. This changes if, for example, the geographical spread is different - let us say 100 people are from one area and 1,000 are from another - while companies are run based on the number of shares people hold. We talked about the asset lock. In our case, we are providing for a legal reserve to show that people have a commitment to this co-operative, they want to put money into developing the co-operative, or have the money as a rainy day fund rather than immediately distributing it as profit. Those are the main differences.

In addition, co-operatives are based on the seven co-operative principles that exist. There is open membership. Limited companies are limited to 149 people but a co-operative has no limit. A co-operative has to be open and if it is said to somebody that he or she cannot be a member, there has to be a rationale why this person cannot be a member of the co-operative.