Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

I will withdraw it but I have a question. During the wretched years of 2008 and 2009, when everything came crashing down and the unemployment numbers started to rise to the current horrific level, how many people in permanent jobs were made redundant in order that companies would become lean and competitive and survive, and how many were taken back as temporary agency workers? The three companies of which I have spoken, one a meat company in County Kildare, one a multinational located in both Galway and Kildare, and the other in north Dublin, all made permanent staff redundant, which they did not want to do, and then took on agency workers on a permanent basis in order that they could compete on the world stage. It is a question for us to consider. We felt a bit better because the companies got a few jobs back, but they did so in order that they could become competitive. It is so difficult in this House to feel what it is like to be in business and be worried, like I was because my house was mortgaged on my business. I had to let go ten of my friends who had worked for me for 16 years and take on temporary staff eventually in order that I could continue to survive.