Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chair might give me a slight bit of latitude and I will finish then. On the core question, certainly, I do not believe that the management has rejected the proposals from the union leadership. What they have said to me is it is not enough in terms of cost savings to be able to avoid moving into care and maintenance for now. Of course, we need then to look at what is possible in terms of state aid in supporting, for example, the company to help compensate for the dramatic increase in energy costs it has experienced over the last 12 months, just like we have done with other companies. Our state aid team is working with that at the moment.

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