Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important Topical Issue for discussion and for giving me the opportunity to speak on it. I represent Kildare South and while HP Inc. is located in the north of the county, today is a significant blow for all of County Kildare and the adjoining counties where a number of the workers come from. It should be put on the record that although we are discussing HP Inc. now, the jobs in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise element remain secure. That is very important and I urge the Minister to continue to engage with Hewlett Packard in the future to ensure everything can be done to keep the other approximately 1,500 important jobs on site. I acknowledge the supports the Government has provided to the research and development sector in recent years to grow that sector, a reason those jobs remain. Today, my thoughts are with the employees and their families but also with the workers and families in the many businesses in Kildare whose business, or a large amount of it, depends on the spin-off industry and economic activity that happens in this plant.

I wish to focus on the supports the State will provide now. The IDA has a significant role to play. A fine site will become available, unfortunately, and I expect no stone to be left unturned to find an alternative economic activity and employment opportunity for it. Kildare sometimes suffers from a perception of affluence. There is a belief that because Kildare has a great deal of foreign direct investment and is located beside Dublin it is fine. I challenge that myth. We have challenges in Kildare and some of them come from being so close to such a large economy as Dublin's. The Minister must ensure there is not a sense that jobs will come to Kildare because of where it is. No stone can be left unturned to ensure these jobs are replaced by other high level jobs.

Another State support is the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, ETB, which is ready to support the staff if they require re-training. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund provides support when 500 jobs are lost in an area. I ask the Minister to work closely with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, whose Department would make the application to Europe for this support funding. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund will help staff who need to re-train and will provide approximately 60% of the funding towards that support to the staff who are losing their jobs today and over the coming year. We should seek to tap into that important support if at all possible. The education and training board will support that.

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