Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The companies which have been under the strongest attack appear to have made considerably better efforts than many other companies to make information available to their employees. Perhaps in the past they tended to do so almost exclusively or to great extent through one method of delivering information. This will clearly not meet the requirements of this directive. There is now a requirement for a consultation element. These companies have largely operated a system of information that is considerably more open than many of their counterparts. It does not seem as difficult a challenge for them to move one step forward and to have a system of consultation as well as information as it might be for companies with no tradition or culture of disseminating information to their employees.

It is very difficult to prescribe a model that could be used across a range of companies and I am not in a position to do so. I am more than satisfied that such a model could be invented within a workplace and operate extremely successfully, either through the direct involvement model or the representative model. We have provided for this in the legislation, which meets the requirements of the directive and seems to reflect the requirements of the very diverse workplaces operating in this country in the best and most open and sensible way.