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

I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, is here with us. This is the first opportunity I have had in the Chamber to congratulate him on his appointment and wish him well on his work. I worked closely with him in the previous Dáil as a member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. I have to say he was an exemplary Chairman of the committee over a five-year period.

Unfortunately, this is the third time in the past four years I have had to secure a Topical Issue debate in this House on job losses at Liberty Insurance, which was formerly known as Quinn Insurance. There were 285 job losses in the company in November 2012. A further 270 workers were made redundant in June 2015. Now, in June 2016, the company is facing further job losses as a result of the announcement of 70 redundancies. Liberty Insurance has been a major and important employer in Cavan town since the mid-1990s. More recently, it has been a major employer in Enniskillen and Blanchardstown. It had an office in Navan, County Meath, at one stage as well.

When Liberty Insurance purchased Quinn Insurance in October 2011, it gave a firm commitment as an international company to the Government, through which the sales process had to be approved, that it would maintain more than 1,000 people in employment in three locations. My understanding is that there is a total employment level of 470 in Cavan and Blanchardstown today. There are 211 people employed in Cavan and more than 250 people employed in Blanchardstown. The company is now seeking a further 70 redundancies. We do not know how many redundancies will occur at each site. Having spoken to many skilled, diligent and hard-working employees of the company in Cavan, I know they did not believe they would now be facing redundancy. They are very worried about their future employment prospects. Most of them are young people with family and mortgage commitments and the usual challenges of running a home and paying off a mortgage. They are very concerned about their future employment prospects. I have known this company very well since its formation in the mid-1990s. It has given very good employment to many local people and people from a wide catchment area. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Eugene Murphy, will be familiar with it as well. I emphasise that this company plays an extremely important role in the insurance industry.

When the Tánaiste; the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor; the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar; and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton were in the House last week, I took the opportunity to ask them to ensure their Departments and the relevant statutory agencies under the aegis of their Departments will work with all the employees who are facing an uncertain future now to ensure they receive the maximum assistance. The departmental agencies need to provide the many employees who are facing job losses with the relevant upskilling and assistance to get them through this difficult period. Those who unfortunately will lose their jobs need to be given assistance to try to find employment elsewhere. In a subsequent meeting with the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, I asked her to try to ensure her Department and the various agencies, including IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, work with Liberty Insurance. They need to impress on the company its obligation to retain the maximum possible level of employment at its locations in this country, particularly Cavan. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to replace any jobs that are lost in Cavan. I am making a direct appeal to the Minister of State on behalf of the talented and committed workforce in Liberty Insurance. They need every possible assistance to retain their employment.

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