Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As a local Deputy, I can understand the situation. My constituency, Clare, faced a similar situation a few years ago when a major quarry and concrete company closed. We know the devastation caused on a personal basis, as the Deputy outlined, for the many families concerned.

The company was established in the 1930s and was a major supplier to the construction industry during the boom. It went into receivership in June 2014 owing debts to AIB. The company had an interim examiner appointed shortly afterwards but was subsequently placed back into receivership.

I am aware that a number of the quarries owned by Dan Morrissey Ireland Limited are due to go to public auction shortly on the instructions of the joint receivers, as the Deputy outlined. I understand Enterprise Ireland had limited engagement with the company. In 2007 the agency paid it a €4,500 environment management grant. Although Enterprise Ireland does not fund companies to assist them to trade on the domestic market, its potential exporters division was in contact with the company to discuss exporting options and understands it was not exporting. The agency, therefore, was not in a position to assist further.

Supporting enterprise development in all regions of the country to support job creation is a key objective of the Government, with initiatives such as the regional Action Plans for Jobs seeking to build on the capabilities and strengths of each region to maximise enterprise growth and job creation. The regional action plan initiative is working to promote regional and rural job creation by bringing different stakeholders in each of the eight regions together to identify innovative and practical actions to be taken across a range of Departments and agencies. The success of this project is crucial to the Government’s ambition to create an additional 200,000 jobs, 135,000 of which would be outside Dublin, by 2020. The most recent quarter 2 2017 figures from the CSO also show that over 80% of all jobs created in the previous year were created outside Dublin. The enterprise agencies are making a significant contribution to employment in the regions. Some 61% of new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland firms in 2016 were outside Dublin, while 52% of new jobs by IDA Ireland firms in 2016 were outside Dublin.

The south-east plan which covers the area under discussion is the key policy response for supporting employment growth in the south-east region, with public and private stakeholders actively engaged in delivering a range of innovative and practical actions set out in the plan. The core objective of the plan is to create a further 25,000 jobs in the region by 2020 in the counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford and reduce the unemployment rate to within 1% of the State average. Sectors targeted as part of the plan include traditionally strong sectors for the region such as agrifood, manufacturing, engineering and tourism. Key targets include a 30% to 40% increase in investments by overseas companies in the region by 2019. The first two progress reports on the implementation of the south-east plan show that good progress continues to be made in implementing the actions. Some 13,000 jobs have been created in the south east since the regional Action Plans for Jobs initiative was launched in January 2015. In addition, the unemployment rate in the south east fell from 12.8% in 2015 to 8.1% by quarter 2 of 2017. Numbers on the live register in County Carlow have fallen by 1,538, or 29%, in the past two years. However, there is still work to be done. The unemployment rate in the south east is still over one percentage point higher than the quarter 2 national average of 6.4%. The enterprise development agencies will continue to make every effort they can to develop new employment opportunities in the region.

Carlow is home to seven IDA Ireland clients which, between them, employ just over 800 people in a range of manufacturing and service operations. Enterprise Ireland has 85 client companies based in Carlow which created 373 jobs in 2016, bringing total employment by Enterprise Ireland clients in Carlow to 2,973. I referred to some of the Deputy's questions in my reply.

Deputy John McGuinness:The Minister of State has not answered my questions. He has studiously avoided every single point I have made on behalf of Morrisseys and the 100 jobs which are at stake. He has ignored everything I have said and the letters written to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and AIB. It is disgraceful that he would come into the House with no facts or figures and make no effort to explain whether he will contact AIB, ask it to stop the sale on behalf of the taxpayer and protect the jobs which are at risk. He never mentioned the Morrisseys, the offers made or whether he would intervene.

That shows complete disrespect for this House and its Members. The job of the Ceann Comhairle is to protect the interests of the Members but the Minister of State has not answered the question. I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to insist that the Minister of State, either now or at some other stage today, provides the answer to the questions asked.

This is why people are so cynical about politics. The Minister of State refuses to discuss the issue at heart while I have cut to the chase and gave the facts. I ask the Minister of State again if he will tell the bank, which this country owns, to stop the sale of this quarry and protect the 100 jobs and competition in the market. Today the Minister of State is ignoring not just the plight of my constituents but the issue at hand. There are three superpowers in this country that own all the quarries and they dictate the price of the product; it is a cartel. The Minister of State has addressed none of this. He has expressed sympathy and said he knows about this because of his experience in Clare. Why did he not do something with that experience and at least give the facts asked of him instead of reading this drivel into the record? He is ignoring a fair attempt on my behalf to put a request that it is absolutely necessary for the Minister of State to address. Stop this sale through AIB to a super group that will result in the loss of jobs and have an effect on 100 families. It is a disgraceful answer.

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