Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

On the question of engagement from MFG, to have a preliminary discussion on this issue I asked the two chief executives involved to meet me, last November. I have tried, time and again, to get engagement from MFG and a process. It is inevitable that we have to make savings. MFG has lost opportunities and done no service to its workers because we could have progressed much further, acting in their interests, if there had been proper engagement by the senior management and the board earlier as regards what is an inevitable process.

I am appealing once again to MFG to engage constructively in the process so that we try to get the best information and make the best arrangements for the employees over time. I have also spelt out that the LEADER element which MFG runs has to go on until 2013 because it has a contract with us until then. We want to figure out how we can go forward and there are opportunities there if only it will engage. However, MFG is not engaging, and that is my problem.

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