Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I said to the Deputy the last time we discussed this, there was a stand-off in which no discussions were taking place. These issues are now going through the industrial relations process and FÁS is the first organisation to do this. I want to leave it to the industrial relations process. It is not the norm for Government to discuss negotiations just beginning to identify areas in which we can move forward and to see if we can come up with a solution that will meet the requirements of the organisation in a way that does not undermine the basic requirements of having an effective decentralisation programme.

See this speech in context