Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It is now opportune to tell the House what has been happening for some time, contrary to the remarks made by the Opposition. I met SR Technics local management in Zurich on 11 November. It indicated to me that it had a business proposal for which it sought support. I met the Irish management over Christmas. We worked through a business plan with the company and IDA Ireland. We put together a support programme and mechanism for it in training and research and development. That was ongoing work, as requested by local management, in which I participated personally and which IDA Ireland supported on my behalf. I met Mr. Kessler on 11 February. In the interim the board in Zurich rejected that business plan. The chief executive, the chief operations officer and the chief financial officer came to me on 11 February and made their announcement on 12 February. It is important to indicate that throughout that period, the IDA and I had been working with local management, supporting it and appreciating the work being done by it and the unions to reconfigure and deal with the cost base, research and development and training needs of the company. This was done on the basis of serious concerns brought to my attention, with which I dealt immediately.

The second issue is that SR Technics is a foreign, private company. When I met the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, whom I met three times and to whom I spoke on several occasions by telephone, I indicated that one of the concerns brought to my attention by Members of this House of all parties and by employees was that the equipment would be removed prior to the bids being completed. I received an undertaking from the company that, during the period when the bids were being prepared, the assets would not be removed. Unfortunately, the bid has been accepted and, although the Deputy has alluded to what was rumoured in Dublin Airport, one of the clauses of the bid is actually a confidentiality clause. That said, it was on that basis that I indicated quite categorically that I was very disappointed at the outcome on the basis of all the interaction that had taken place between me, the agencies and the specialist team set up on our behalf to support the bids and those who were interested.

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