Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy was here for all the questions, he would know the Tánaiste was here for the last hour and a half, so could not be reading correspondence from trade unions.

As I referenced in the Arcadia conversation last week, we ask that people who find themselves in difficult situations of insolvency or companies being liquidated listen to the advice of the unions. Unions are experienced and best placed to give out good advice. In our view, they have given good advice over the last couple of months. Others have given other counter-advice, including the Deputy. He comes in here with claims around assets and millions here and millions there. I have not seen any evidence. He has probably given advice to workers based on his opinion on what assets are there. That might not always be the best advice. We would say the unions are in the best position to give good advice and guidance, have negotiated quite well and have worked with us as a Government around the review of the legislation. We have said we will take on board any positive recommendations. If we can strengthen the legislation on behalf of workers, of course we will do it. Why would we not?

It involves a review of the Duffy-Cahill report's recommendations as well as other recommendations from the unions. We are doing all of that.

We will move forward in a positive way if that is effective, but I remind the Deputy that previous reviews over the past four or five years have referenced the fact that there is already a great deal of legislation in place - company law and employment law - to protect employees because we value that as a country. We need to determine why that legislation is not always utilised to its full potential.

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