Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this important topic. I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, is here to respond.

This time last week, the 140 workers at the Bose plant in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, got the devastating news that the manufacturing plant would cease operations in April of this year. Sadly, the method of communication with the workers was desperate. Some of the workers, whom I spoke to over the weekend and on Monday night, had worked in that plant since 1978-79, while others had 20 to 30 years' service, and all of them spoke in glowing terms of the great employer Bose has been. The method of communicating the devastating news to them was through a video link of four minutes and 40 seconds outlining the plans for the new year for Bose Corporation. The final part of the message was that two plants, including the manufacturing plant in Carrickmacross, would close.

On several occasions on Thursday evening and Thursday night, as well as subsequently, Councillor P. J. O'Hanlon, who is one of the Fianna Fáil councillors in south Monaghan, spoke to me passionately about the devastation that had just been inflicted on the workforce and the community in Carrickmacross and much further afield. On Friday I listened on local radio, Northern Sound, to some of the long-serving workers outline that Bose was their life. They entered good employment there after leaving school. They improved their skills. They ensured that they are a very skilled workforce. That message of four minutes and 40 seconds was, unfortunately, seen by many of those people as the end of their working careers. On Monday night, at a public meeting organised by SIPTU, many of the workers outlined with great clarity their commitment to Bose over the years, stating that Bose was a very good employer and that over the years they had adopted new practices.

Deputy Nash will be aware from his departmental officials and from Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland that the Bose manufacturing facility in Carrickmacross has been a model in implementing the lean manufacturing process. It increased productivity and reduced costs. The workers have done everything right to remain as competitive as possible over the years.

The announcement of the transfer of the operations to Malaysia and Mexico was news that came as a shock, out of the blue, to a wide area of south Monaghan and parts of east Cavan as well. Along with my Oireachtas colleagues from Cavan-Monaghan, I had the opportunity, which I appreciated, to meet the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, on Tuesday last. We outlined to him what we had heard from the public representatives in the immediate Carrickmacross area and what we had learned from the workers and their union representatives at the public meeting on Tuesday last. The message that we gave to Deputy Bruton was to engage as vigorously, positively and strongly as possible with the senior management of Bose to see if they would consider reversing this decision.

We must take into account in our deliberations on this topic that Carrickmacross is the only manufacturing facility of Bose Corporation in the European Union. It has been there for almost four decades. It was established in 1978 and has a proud record of good governance and good practice over the years.

I repeat to the Minister of State, Deputy Nash - and I hope he will convey this both in his own work and to Deputy Bruton - that we want the strongest possible interaction from a Government point of view directly with the senior management of Bose. I understand that a senior executive of Bose Corporation is in Ireland today and tomorrow, or some of these days. On behalf of the workforce and the community in Carrickmacross, I ask that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, or whoever else, meet directly with that senior management official and give the strong message that we are anxious for the company to consider reversing its decision. They have a highly skilled and committed workforce in Carrickmacross who produce product of the highest quality, and it is that international corporation's only manufacturing facility in the European Union.

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