Monaghan Poultry Products must have thought it had enough problems this week without the intervention of SIPTU branch secretary Jim Mullary. Health and safety officers revoked the company's licence twice in the space of a week. As the company and the unions protested the move, which put 300 jobs at risk, the unions called for State aid to solve the problem. It didn't explain why the taxpayer should foot the bill for a private company that has not invested in essential health and safety at its business.

Not content with raising the profile of a company, which now concedes it needs to put £750,000 into upgrading basic health and safety before the plant can re-open, Mr Mullary then announced on prime time radio the names of key customers Dunnes Stores and Tesco. One imagines Monaghan Poultry Products could have done without such a high-profile trumpeting of key customers in its present circumstances.