Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

Last Friday, a deputation, which I was unable to meet, asked for a postponement of the sale of some tooling equipment and so on. My Department immediately passed on that request to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the sale subsequently was deferred. Anything the Government can do and that is within its power certainly will be done to try to ensure that as many jobs as possible are preserved. That is what is happening in respect of the agencies such as the IDA and so on. If a viable alternative exists, the Government does not wish to see such highly skilled workers losing their jobs. We will do everything we can to avoid that situation arising.

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