Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree that the focus needs to change. The Skillnets programme is operated by a lot of our business representative organisations and I have seen some of the programmes sponsored by, for example, ISME, which work very well for SMEs right across the country in upskilling people who are in employment to make sure we have the appropriate skills for the job and career challenges of the future. There is no doubt that this is very important.

However, I am satisfied that we have reached this point now with the Clerys situation, a situation that appalled all of us. The trade unions, for example, are satisfied that we have a comprehensive review of that intersection between employment law and company law to try to ensure, in so far as we can, that the occurrence of situations such as that is minimised in the future so other people across the country do not have to experience what was experienced by the Clerys workers. I also wish to pay tribute to the dignity of the Clerys workers and the way in which they went about their campaign to have a review of the law initiated to ensure such situations do not recur. They were not putting themselves first. They were treated in an appalling fashion and I pay tribute to the way they have conducted themselves over the last period of time during very difficult circumstances.

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