Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter which is obviously very important in my constituency, even though the jobs to be lost are listed in County Clare. As everyone is well aware, Shannon is located very close to Limerick city, from where many of the workers involved come. Molex has delivered a number of good jobs for a huge number of years, with generations of families working in the industry. There are also spin-off companies which are dependent on Molex. My sympathy also extends to the employees of Novartis in County Cork. It is devastating news for the workers after the recent job losses, particularly in Roche and at Moneypoint, another big hit for the mid-west region. This is the worst number of job losses the mid-west has seen since Dell closed its manufacturing plant ten years ago. Some of the same workers are now caught up in the new round of redundancies. Will the Minister indicate if there are European funds that can be accessed to retrain and up-skill to help the workers affected by the job losses announced yesterday to find new employment, especially those in Molex? I am aware that in the aftermath of the Dell factory closure European funds were available, but not all of the money was drawn down to help the workers. The available funds must be drawn down and everything must be done to ensure this will happen. The required skills are available to enable it to happen. A number of years ago I was in Brussels when I was informed that Ireland was particularly bad at drawing down funding that was available, if it wanted to access it.

It is essential that the unions be involved in the discussions that will take place in the next number of weeks. Will the Minister inform the Dáil if she has met the union representatives and can she commit to ensuring they will be involved in all future discussions? The workers in counties Clare, Limerick and Cork do not want to hear any express of sympathy today; rather, they want to hear what the Minister's clear plan is and how the Government will help them. Will the Minister inform the House if she has spoken to IDA Ireland to ask it to focus on finding other businesses to locate in the Shannon free zone which may help to alleviate the effect of some of the job losses? Will the Minister outline the supports the Government and the social protection services will be putting in place for the hundreds of workers affected?

See this speech in context