Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I completely deny that that is the case. Enterprise Ireland will support any restructuring plan agreed by the unions and the company. Once they work out a plan, we stand ready to support it in many ways, for example, by developing lean processes, providing training and support in undertaking research and development. Obviously, a restructuring plan has to be negotiated between the company and the unions and it has to be done collectively. The Labour Relations Commission stands ready to assist in that process. If there are issues about access to accounting details, the Labour Relations Commission has a long record of helping the two parties to deal with these issues in an effective way. It stands ready to assist both the unions and the management of the company to hammer out a restructuring deal of that nature. When that is done, Enterprise Ireland stands ready to support it with a suite of supports. We had the very same situation at Bausch and Lomb where there was a huge difficulty and very difficult changes had to be made. New investment was attracted by the company, as Cadbury is committing to doing in this case. Just 12 months on, we had the recent announcement of expansion in employment. There is a track record of using the Labour Relations Commission and the supports of the agencies involved to develop alternative plans. That assistance is available to both sides.

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