Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious matter for the 700 employees of Elverys Sports, their families and the communities in which they reside. The company's staff are local to its units throughout the country and the various stores are dedicated to and embedded in their communities, as witnessed by the sponsorship they offer to various clubs and organisations and their support for students in offering them summer and weekend work.

As Deputy Mulherin outlined, Elverys Sports finds itself in examinership after a management buy-out was deemed not to be successful because there were other parties seeking to enter the fray. The examiner has an obligation to act in the interests of NAMA, as has been explained. However, NAMA, too, has an obligation to act in the interest of taxpayers. We in this House have our own obligations to the people who give us the privilege to be here. We also have an obligation to taxpayers to ensure that the funds provided to bodies like NAMA yield a dividend for the Exchequer. Any successful bid out of the six that are supposedly on the table must have at its core a commitment to staff interests. The best way to ensure that outcome is for the examiner to allow a staff representative to be privy to the assessment of the various bids. It is the responsibility of Government to ensure NAMA is cognisant of its social obligations as well as its economic responsibilities. It is also the responsibility of Government to ensure that debt not necessarily associated with a profitable business such as this is not allowed to drown jobs, communities and the retail sector, and thereby rid our towns of much-needed investment.

This particular case is a test of the recent comments by Morgan Kelly in his analysis of the economy. It is time for the Government to show it will not stand idly and allow this or any other SME of its type be put to the sword by those who would seek to strangle it in the manner in which matters have been pursued in this instance.

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