Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Like most Deputies I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher is responding to the debate tonight because the issue I have to raise regards unemployment in his constituency. Little Island is in the heart of the area where Deputy Kelleher gets the majority of his support. As we speak, there is a company, Corden PharmaChem, which has been in the Little Island area for the last 33 years. It was a good company, with highly skilled jobs, and it is now facing the threat of closure, with 100 jobs at risk and in total, given the downstream employment, 600 jobs could go in this area. There was an issue last year, but both the management and workforce put together a rescue package, which has been completely ignored. These jobs are not gone yet, but they are under severe threat. In the little time I have, I am pleading with the Minister of State to intervene, and tell the parent company the Government is prepared to give any assistance necessary in order to retain these jobs because once they are gone they will not be won back. That is the vital ingredient. If we can intervene at an early stage and ensure that these jobs can be saved, we should do it and pull out all the stops.

In the last 12 months there have been a number of plant closures in the Little Island area, Pfizer, Incheera and Swissco, another big company and now Corden PharmaChem. This area and Cork city cannot take any more job losses. The unemployment level in Cork city has now reached 40,000, enough to fill a reasonably sized sports stadium. Those are people with families, commitments and everything else. If the Government put half of the energy into saving jobs that it is applying to saving banks, we should not have half the job losses. I am pleading with the Minister of State to intervene now and ensure these jobs are saved.

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