Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was disappointed to hear about the job losses in both Shannon, which I visited earlier today, and Ringaskiddy. This is a big shock to both areas and, most importantly, a huge shock to the workers and their families. Our thoughts and concerns are with them. All the supports of the State will be made available to the workers to help them to upskill or reskill and to ensure they get job opportunities in other areas. In the meantime, IDA Ireland will continue to promote the Shannon area as a very attractive place in which to do business. What we have in Shannon is a pool of talented people who will not have employment or work in Molex at the end of 2020. We will actively promote the area because one of the most valuable resources such areas have is a pool of talented people. There is confidence that there will be opportunities in other companies in the region. Nevertheless, this is a big shock and on a human level the workers and their families have a lot to take in over the coming days.

We always look at international economic and trade developments together with our enterprise agencies and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through its embassy network, with a view to assessing how this will impact on the enterprise environment here. We all know that Ireland is a highly open, export-orientated economy operating in an intensely competitive global marketplace. This means that decisions taken by firms abroad as well as international developments can sometimes impact on their operations here. We cannot take foreign direct investment for granted - that much is clear. The past five years have seen record numbers of jobs created by overseas firms here but, unfortunately, jobs can also be lost, as this week has regrettably demonstrated. We should also remember that these announcements are not a reflection of the overall strength or competitiveness of our economy. I emphasise too that the developments this week are in no way connected to Brexit, concerns about the international trading environment or any loss of confidence in the Irish or European economies. The developments simply follow specific restructuring and strategic decisions taken by overseas firms.

In the case of Molex, I spoke to the chief executive officer at lunchtime yesterday. He told me that this was a reluctantly made decision and was in no way a reflection on the company’s wonderful workers in Shannon. It was started there in 1971 and the company regretted having to make the decision. However, 75% of what is manufactured there are end-of-life products and not required any more. This decision was made at a company board meeting in Chicago. It has two other plants, one in Sligo and one in Letterkenny, County Donegal. The chief executive officer assured me that it was business as usual with these sites and that it wanted to continue to have strong links with Ireland. IDA Ireland will continue to work with Molex to see if there are other opportunities where new products might come online.

The same applies to the Novartis plant at Ringaskiddy, County Cork. IDA Ireland will continue to work closely with it to see if there are further opportunities for investment there. The Novartis plant will lose 60 jobs next year and then the losses scale up to 2023.

It is not nice for workers to hear this news. However, there is very much a unified approach from the State agencies, the training and university bodies, as well as the local authorities, to these announcements. It is about how everybody can work together. A core group of the key stakeholders will be set up underneath the regional enterprise development plan committee. It will work to deal with the issue of jobs losses and see what opportunities we can secure for the areas in question.