Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

That Bill is due late this year. I can confirm that I did meet representatives of the union and workers at Vita Cortex last week in Cork. I found them to be a very real and honest group of people, and what they are looking for is respect. One of them has given 47 years service to this company. I met the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, today. Clearly, this is a difficult problem. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement cannot find sufficient grounds with regard to the company. The workers' case is that everyone else who left Vita Cortex was given a redundancy payment of 2.9 weeks per year. The Minister for Social Protection has been processing the applications for redundancy by these workers. I hope to meet again with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to see what assistance, if any, can be given from here.

The Labour Relations Commission is, of course, available and continues to be available to facilitate talks. I intend to write to the commission following my meeting with the Vita Cortex workers. As I said, what they are really looking for is a sense of respect based on the many long years of service they gave to the company, including, I might add, facilitating the release of sophisticated machinery for overhaul in recent months in order that the company could meet its targets and objectives, and they feel very aggrieved at the way this is turning out.

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