Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I thank the Minister for the fairly comprehensive response. First, will he indicate if he has worked out the exact statutory entitlement of each Gama worker so that when he hears from Finansbank in due course, he will be able to validate that each of them has received the full entitlement?

Second, have the tendering procedures that allowed this breach of law to occur been tightened up subsequent to the revelations relating to this issue? Are new tendering procedures for public contracts now in place?

Third, given that three labour inspectors worked full-time on the case for the duration of the investigation, we now have just 16.5 manpower equivalent people involved in labour inspection in Ireland, which is the equivalent of one inspector per 117,000 workers. Is that the current position and, if so, does the Minister agree it is unacceptable?

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