Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue of concern and that the Minister of State in the Department concerned is available to make an appropriate response. Sadly, too many of the Adjournment matters I had the privilege to raise in the House last year related to significant job losses in my constituency. Companies, such as CG Services, Buckeye Technologies and Rigid Tools, all saw significant job losses and, as a Deputy for the area, I felt called upon to comment and to ask whether it represented the beginning of a trend and whether it was something to which the Government and, in particular, the Minister and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment should respond.

Sadly, 2005 has not started any better. The job losses announced have been in the greater Cork area, outside my constituency. However, job losses have been announced by Schering-Plough in Brinny, which is located in the neighbouring constituency of Cork South West only 15 miles from Cork city, and it employs many people from my constituency. The loss of 161 jobs at this plant added to the 170 jobs shed a year ago means that 330 fewer people are working in that company.

I have a wider concern in that this company, which does valuable work producing pharmaceuticals for medical relief, has found that patents for many of the products it provides are running out. Strategic decisions have been made in the past to locate a large scale pharmaceutical industry in Cork because it was thought this industry was better placed to withstand the effects of global recession. In many respects, this industry has proved to be resilient. However, with this second wave of job losses at this major plant, the Government needs to indicate whether a trend is emerging which may affect other employers in the area. While Schering-Plough is located in a neighbouring constituency, almost all other pharmaceutical plants are located in my constituency of Cork South Central and the Cork harbour area.

As the Acting Chairman, Deputy Sherlock, will be aware, many of those jobs are being lost in Cork East in the towns of Mitchelstown and Mallow, which he represents. These job losses are also having an effect on the Dairy Co-operative Society. Job losses announced in the past week alone mean that many jobs will be lost at its major plant, Cork Milk Producers in Cork city. As a Deputy for that area, I express my concern that this reorganisation seems to be taking place without any Government input with regard to what should be done to protect jobs and whether those who lose their jobs can be provided with alternative employment opportunities. I suspect the response the Minister of State will give will be like the three responses I received last year in respect of three companies I mentioned earlier and lauding the number of jobs provided in the Cork region.

However, it ignores the central argument I am trying to make that the people who are losing their jobs are not included in that wider story. They are not mere demographics; they are people who do not fit into that template, they are people who have specific skills and they may be people who are on the wrong side of 50 years of age who may face difficulties finding jobs in the region. Will the Minister of State and the Minister, who is a constituency colleague, treat the issue with a degree of seriousness?

There is an irony in respect of the job losses at CMP Dairy because it is the last dairy in the country which made milk available in glass bottles. The milk bottling plant, which is covered in mothballs, is on the site. The trend that has emerged of trying to put aside technology which was useful in environmental terms has been increased by decisions made in the Dairygold Co-operative Society that people are surplus to requirements. It behoves us to say this is not the right way to treat communities that have served companies well. It is certainly not to the advantage of the local Cork economy or to consumers in the Cork region.

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