Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I absolutely agree that at this point our sympathy is clearly with the workers who have received this very unwelcome announcement. I understand 80 people were advised on 1 November that they would lose their jobs at the company by 31 January 2014. As Deputies have acknowledged, the company is retaining 70 jobs. This is a rationalisation plan, which is obviously a commercial matter for the company itself.

As the Deputies have said, Homecare Medical Supplies is run by the McGuinness family. The company supplies health care equipment, disposables and daily living and mobile aids to the HSE, hospitals, nursing homes and the community care, pharmacy and retail sectors, so it has contracts other than with the HSE. Its head office is in Ballyhaunis, with a service centre in Kiltimagh and retail stores in a number of towns, including Ballyhaunis, Castlebar, Cavan, Cork, Galway and Dundalk. The company confirmed that 50 jobs will go in Kiltimagh service centre, 15 in Ballyhaunis and a further 15 in Clonee, County Meath. The company stressed that this is only part of its business and the remaining 70 jobs will be unaffected.

The company is a client of Enterprise Ireland, so it is not a company that is falling through the crevices, as Deputy Calleary fears. Enterprise Ireland stands ready to support the company through its full range of services. To take up Deputy O'Mahony's point, the HSE has a new tendering process and the date for the closure of tender applications is in about a week's time. As I understand it, the decision has been made by the company that it will not be entering a tender into that process. Clearly, if Enterprise Ireland can assist the company in any way it will stand ready to do so, but the company appears to have made a decision in this matter on commercial grounds.

I assure the House there will be every support for workers through both the Department of Social Protection and the other services, whether it be our own employment rights support services or the various services of the training and support agencies, which will be available to the workers. On the wider question of procurement which was raised by the Deputy, this remains an important issue. We need to have good protocols in regard to public procurement, which, while achieving value for money, must also allow innovative SMEs to have an opportunity to tender. Enterprise Ireland is seeking to develop expertise in that field, and it has worked with many companies and facilitated joint tendering and other approaches. I am heartened by the fact that the new procurement officer, Mr. Paul Quinn, has become involved explicitly with SME access to the procurement structure. That is a good omen for the future, although it continues to be a concern of businesses as they tender for projects. Clearly, I cannot comment on the individual case that is involved here as I am not privy to the details of it. However, I assure the Deputies that all of our agencies will work with both the workers and the broader community to find alternatives and a way out for people.

On the wider issue, it is encouraging to see that employment in the west, as recently published by the CSO, is up by 4,200 in the last 12 months, so there are clearly signs of some positive job movement within the region, on which we can hope to build.

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