Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I am glad that this matter has been raised on the Adjournment. Like every other Deputy and person in Cork, I was very concerned and disappointed to hear about the situation in Motorola. The company, which employs 330 people, informed its employees on 29 January 2006 of its intention to enter an employee consultation process regarding the future of the Cork site. The company is considering a proposal to cease all engineering functions carried out at the site. If this proposal is confirmed, it would result in most employees at the site being at risk of redundancy and could make the business unsustainable in the future. The company fully intends to carry out the consultation process with the highest possible level of consideration for all of its employees in Cork. I understand that the company does not intend to comment further in regard to the situation until the consultation process is completed.

In response to Deputy Boyle's point, the methodology by which a company announces its decisions is entirely a matter for the company. Neither I nor IDA Ireland has any role in that process. I ask the Deputy to accept that. Let us have a constructive debate on this issue. While I am not suggesting that Deputy Boyle is playing politics with jobs, we can do that too. The immediate concern here tonight is the workers at Motorola, not political point-scoring, of which we have had evidence. Other companies have announced their decisions in different ways in the past.

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