Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the MSD operation. The Minister of State has made the point that the company continues to employ staff and has made a substantial investment in other locations. As a substantial investment was made relatively recently in Swords, it is no guarantee of protection. The Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, met MSD management over one month ago. Was the issue discussed? Did management announce it would be shutting the Swords plant? What steps did the Minister take to cushion the blow? Workers only found out about it in the past ten days. Did the Minister ask why this was happening in Ireland? This is becoming a habit and multinational companies are gradually being chipped away. I appreciate that considerable numbers are employed in the multinational sector, on which we have a reliance for new jobs, but we are losing jobs that have been based here for decades. This has a lasting effect and the figures given by the Minister of State show that multinationals are small employers by comparison with small and medium-sized enterprises and the State and semi-State sectors. We must also look at these elements.

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