Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Early last month, it was announced by the multinational group Mondelez that 63 jobs would be lost at the Cadbury plant in Coolock as a consequence of the transfer of production of its Time Out bar to Poland. I and other north Dublin Deputies secured a Topical Issue Debate at that time to try to identify how those jobs could be saved or how other job opportunities could be found for the workers affected, all of whom live in north Dublin. We also discussed how the impact of this on the local economy could be mitigated. Cadbury's has been an iconic brand in supporting quality Irish jobs and job losses would badly affect the local community.

At a meeting of the trade unions representing Cadbury's workers last Friday, to which public representatives were invited, I was disappointed to be told that nothing really had happened in the meantime to address the situation. Last month, north Dublin Deputies were informed that an interagency group, including Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, the Department of Social Protection, partnership agencies and local enterprise offices, would be set up as a matter of urgency to deal with the 63 job losses. At the meeting with unions on Friday, we were informed that the employee representatives were not aware of such a body and up to then they had not been contacted by anybody in this regard. At this meeting the Cadbury workers appealed to their Deputies to ensure that everything possible was done to avert the job losses.

The loss of tonnes of production at the Coolock plant is damaging the plant's competitive position compared to other Mondelez sites outside of Ireland and this, they believe, further threatens the viability of the manufacturing unit in Coolock. In 2010, they lost 90 jobs in a restructuring programme. In 2012, they lost 42 jobs when the bean processing plant closed and, as recently as last September, they lost a further 35 jobs from the site in Coolock. We have been told that there is a lack of information being made available to the employees on the viability of the Mondelez operation at Cadbury's in Coolock. The employees need this information so that they can develop a counterproposal to try to save the jobs.

Can the Minister of State tell me what can be done by his Department to minimise the redundancies? Can he outline what retraining and re-skilling options will be made available to the redundant workers? Can he assure me they will receive assistance in accessing similar employment with the skills they have acquired?

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