Derek McDowell (Labour)

I have copies of the note the Minister kindly sent to Deputy Howlin, my party's spokesperson on the issue, the note made by Mike Jennings, the trade union official who attended the meeting, a letter written by a Fianna Fáil Deputy and comments attributed to another Fianna Fáil Deputy.

The departmental report on the meeting stated, "The Tánaiste said that talks were ongoing in relation to the statutory redundancy issue. She gave an undertaking that if the legislation is changed she would do everything she could to ensure that the Comerama workers would be included in any amendment." The Minister has put a spin on this. I have no doubt she will say she has done everything she can and it is not possible to make the legislation retrospective. Nonetheless, those who attended the meeting and the workers who relied on the word of those who attended were under the impression that the Minister had given an explicit and unambiguous commitment to make payments retrospective and ensure those workers would receive the additional payments which everybody at the meeting, including the Minister, accepted they should get. Whether she says she has done her best, she is seen by the workers in Comerama as having breached her word.