Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

To answer the Deputy's specific question - I am responding to the point she made - the labour movement, both the Labour Party and the trade union movement, believe it is the responsibility of trade unions in the first instance to represent the rights of workers and to do so directly with their employers. To the best of my knowledge, the Ulster Bank has conducted its negotiations rightly and properly with the direct representatives of the banking workers in the Ulster Bank. We will await to hear from the negotiators, the IBOA, if they so choose, whether they want the assistance and help of the Government to negotiate the necessary redundancy packages. The Government has every confidence in the ability of the IBOA to negotiate the entitlements and packages to which their members are entitled and for which they are eligible. If there are difficulties which are beyond the capacity of the social partners to sort out themselves then the Government will assist but it is not the business of the Government to interfere in that process. They are well able to do it themselves. If they run into difficulties the machinery of the State is there to assist them but there have been no requests for such assistance.

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