Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, he is the Minister with responsibility for jobs, and second, as a TD, he is very interested in local issues. The Minister has met with management of the company and all of the agencies involved and, as such, he is aware of all of the issues. The issue of a meeting with the workers was raised. An invitation for such a meeting has been issued. There appears to be an issue around organising a time for that meeting. I am not sure what the delay is, but there has not been a response from the workers to that invitation.

In regard to Deputy Paul Murphy's point about information, perhaps when the agencies meet with the workers it will be possible to put together a list of what is needed and we can then try to get that information for them. All efforts will be made to ensure the workers get what they need to make their counter-proposal. The Minister does not accept that the jobs are lost. However, he does not have a magic wand. Like everybody else, he is out there trying to negotiate and work with companies.

In regard to the Minister's success in terms of job creation, he has been very successful in that regard. Naturally, as Deputies, we all want jobs in our own backyard, but that is not always possible. The Minister is doing a good job in terms of the creation of sustainable jobs. Everybody knows that is the truth. While some people choose to use debates of this type to say otherwise, most people engage constructively on coming up with solutions.

As I said earlier, the Minister has set up the inter-agency group. Enterprise Ireland has met with the company on a weekly basis in an effort to come up with a solution. It is not the case that it has accepted defeat on this matter. It continues to engage on this issue and to seek to attract jobs to other sites. It is an ongoing process and all involved are doing their best. Hopefully, the outcome will be good.

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