Fastway workers, subcontractors and franchisees were left high and dry last week. Some of them are outside the gate today and some of them are in the Gallery with Deputies Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy. They were told they would not be paid during the 30-day receivership period. It is eight weeks before Christmas. They cannot apply for another job. They cannot get jobseeker's allowance. They are afraid to take supplementary welfare allowance without having written confirmation that it will not affect their redundancy. There are serious questions as to how we can allow companies to operate like this in the first place. Will the Minister tell me today what precisely Ministers are doing to protect these workers, the small businesses and the road haulage companies that have suffered acute losses? What is the Government going to do to get the 50,000 parcels delivered to customers who are waiting for those parcels?

Thank you, Deputy.

Government Ministers have to be active in this space.

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge all of the workers who are here. I regret what has happened in the past number of days. I know how concerning and difficult it is for everyone involved.

To answer the Deputy's question, receivership is a long-standing legal mechanism around the independence of functions when a company enters into that process. I was asked about this yesterday by Deputy Murphy. The Department of Social Protection is engaging directly with the receivers in the context of the information that has emerged and a collective redundancy notification has been received by the Department of enterprise as well. There are limitations given the independence of the receivership process. Of the two respective Departments, one has been notified and the other is engaging directly. That work is ongoing in the context of what is emerging.

But what are they going to do?