Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The fact of the matter is that when this announcement was made the Government failed to properly address what it could do in real and specific terms to save these jobs. It is all very well to refer to education and re-training afterwards. For heaven's sake, do not utter "taskforce" across this Chamber to me because I will surely take ill. The fact is the Government has yet to demonstrate properly why it was not feasible or explain why it could not have introduced a Government timeframed guarantee to underscore the solvency deficit in respect of Quinn Insurance Limited to allow the company to continue to trade throughout the Six Counties and in Britain, where it was relatively embryonic, where over a short period it could have establish its viability and profitability and where it had already demonstrated its competitiveness among the other players in those markets. That was what the Government could have done to save the jobs rather than react after the event.

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