Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department is committed to remaining within the confines of the framework that it set earlier this year, temporarily moving away from the 5% commitment to 6.5% for next year. The Minister is on record as saying that.

We are approaching, at least technical, full employment. Nobody could have envisaged that this time two years ago. It would be churlish of me not to recognise the impact the measures, formulated by the Government and endorsed by the Oireachtas, have had in supporting business and people in work at an unprecedentedly difficult time for our country and globally. That is recognised. We are approaching full employment. There are risks over the next period that have been articulated by other colleagues. We all know, and the Ministers know as constituency Deputies as well as senior Ministers, the impact the energy crisis is having on the very viability of some businesses that would be otherwise viable. I had a conversation with a small hospitality sector business owner last week who told me that his energy bills are now exceeding his rent costs. That puts things in perspective. We all accept significant initiatives need to be taken by the Government to try to assist businesses through this very difficult process, though of course with conditions attached.

I put a question to Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment officials last week regarding any analysis that may have been done around the sectors or sub-sectors of the economy that might be especially at risk and the number of jobs that may be involved.

There are approximately 120,000 jobs involved in energy intensive businesses, especially those in the heavy manufacturing space that rely on gas. Some of those jobs may be very vulnerable. We know that a significant Government programme was signed off by the European Commission on 11 August. This will be operated by the State agencies to assist some of those companies into the future. While it is all well and good assisting companies to meet their ever-rising energy bills, in truth it involves burning through cash to keep the show on the road. That means energy companies always get paid. In considering how to use our resources smartly, I will return to a hobbyhorse of mine, that is, the need for a form of German-style short-time working scheme that we could take from the shelf, customise, tailor and target at industries that are experiencing crises. That is something that needs to be considered again. It may well be the case that some intensive users of energy in highly skilled sectors of the manufacturing sector of our economy will require support to furlough workers at this difficult time. This is a crisis we could not have foreseen.

I will give an example. There is an employer in my constituency named Premier Periclase. It is based in Drogheda and is involved in heavy manufacturing. It manufactures magnesium-based products and has an old manufacturing facility on the banks of the River Boyne. The company has initiated redundancy notices to almost 40 of its 45 staff. It came out of examinership at the end of May confident that once it transitioned from a reliance on gas to renewables, which was its plan post examinership, it would become a viable company that may even diversify over the next few years and continue to retain its skilled engineers, electricians, fitters and general operatives. The company's gas and energy bills are running €5 million ahead of what was anticipated in May. There are finite supports the State can provide to an industry such as that but one of the measures that could be introduced is a furlough or wage support scheme for businesses such as Premier Periclase to help them with their labour costs during this difficult period. Instead we are going to see almost 40 skilled workers laid off. Some of them may never work again because the sectors in which they work may no longer exist this time next year or in two years. I plead with the Ministers to seriously consider in an urgent fashion the introduction of a form of short-time working scheme to help assist companies such as Premier Periclase and sectors such as theirs with their costs over the next period of time because once those jobs are gone, they will not come back. We need to focus in a laser-like fashion on supporting industries and sectors such as the one I have mentioned because otherwise they will be gone. That could be a smart investment of what I accept are limited public funds at this difficult time.