I wish to acknowledge correspondence dated 14 January 2008 and further correspondence dated 13 February 2008 from Sheehan, Ryan and Company solicitors which has written to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment on behalf of its client, the Electrical Contractors Safety and Standards Association Limited. In this correspondence, Sheehan, Ryan and Company solicitors states that its client now takes issue with certain statements made by the then president of the Association of Electrical Contractors of Ireland at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business held on 12 October 2005. Sheehan, Ryan and Company solicitors state that its client rejects certain statements which are, in its view, inaccurate and not based on fact.
As Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment I am, without commenting on the merits or otherwise of this matter, placing this statement on the record of the public session of this meeting. I am doing so in the interests of fairness to facilitate the Electrical Contractors Safety and Standards Association Limited in making a public reply in response to the statements it has objected to and to record its objections on the public record of the Houses of the Oireachtas. As agreed in private session, the clerk to the committee will notify Sheehan, Ryan and Company solicitors and Mr. Dermot McClannon of the Association of Electrical Contractors of Ireland that this statement has been read into the official record of the public session of this meeting, is now part of the Official Report of the Houses and will be included on its website in due course.