Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, as general as it may have been. I understand why it was general, but the major question that needs to be answered, as I outlined, is why AIB has moved in at this stage and why not last January or February when there were difficulties in the marketplace, the weather was bad and the company could not do the work it is doing currently? Was the bank trying to protect somebody or was another investor waiting for it to intervene? This is a viable company which has been dealing with the bank, as Deputy Peadar Tóibín said. Its representatives have not been putting their heads in the sand for the past few years. My understanding is that in the past six years they have repaid €19 million to AIB. They did not put their heads in the sand and tell it to go away. They have been up-front with it. It is important that the jobs are protected and that we get answers as to why the bank moved in at the busiest time of the year when the order books are full and a great deal of work is ongoing and did not do so last spring.

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