John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is quite a different question from the question Deputy Tóibín asked. On enterprise and business, as the Minister, Deputy Bruton, correctly stated, it is difficult to get into private enterprise. There are the protections of PRSI and the workers will get the benefits. I took a Topical Issue debate on this last week. They will get the statutory redundancy from the State. It is regrettable that they must sit in. Obviously, this company has closed and the owners are not contactable. It is difficult to legislate for that situation. We all know the difficulty in both examples to which the Deputy alluded, HMV and the hotel trader. Both are difficult areas. They are changing trades.

The Government has created substantial jobs in the area of innovation and enterprise, with the enterprise offices, the innovation hub and the pharmaceutical end. Clearly, there is the legacy of the previous Government with the amount of retailing space. Equally, the number of hotels that were developed caused serious difficulties.

It is regrettable that workers are sitting in currently but no doubt they will get their statutory entitlement from their PRSI contributions. It is regrettable that they must go that avenue.

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