Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate this afternoon. This is a critical debate for all parts of the mid-west region, including my constituency of north Kerry and west Limerick. Mr. Brosnan brought home to us the reality of the situation last Friday. He took the unprecedented measure of calling politicians from all parties together and appealed to us to help him. The task force report provides us with two advantages starting out. First, we have someone of the calibre of Mr. Denis Brosnan, whose record in terms of the development of one of the biggest food companies in the world, certainly in Ireland, we all know. He developed that from a greenfield site from humble beginnings in Listowel in north Kerry. He has a proven track record and the Government did well to get him to chair this task force.

However, Mr. Brosnan is obviously a man who is disillusioned at present because of the lack of action. He is a type of individual who likes to contribute but does not like to waste his time, and if he is taken for granted and is not being listened to, then he is someone who does not walk away from a task he is given but who will not stay around much longer if there is no interest from the Government in his recommendations. Mr. Brosnan pointed out to my party quite clearly that it is over six months since the report was sent to Government and there has been no action that he can see in implementing any of the 20 recommendations of the report. I am sure there are a view recommendations in this report that could be implemented immediately, just to keep the task force alive.

The figure Mr. Brosnan gave to us that struck home was that the numbers signing on in the mid-west region has increased by almost 150% since December 2007. Apart from Dell, there are jobs being lost across the region. This must be of concern to the Minister. Mr. Brosnan asked us for political support. I say this to the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, if I can get his attention, he is obviously not interested in this debate. Minister O'Dea, could I just-----

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