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

I, too, welcome the meeting that took place this morning with workers and business people in Shannon. It is important that the workers be supported and kept informed in the coming period.

On the EU application, I totally understand such matters take time. I am anxious that we do it right. We should take our time but do it right. We did not do so with Dell in the past.

The live register figure in Limerick is quite good but we are back where we were just before manufacturing in Dell collapsed in 2009. A shock wave has gone through the city. The closure of Molex, because of its size, will have a huge knock-on effect across the local economy, including in Limerick city and Shannon, and for smaller businesses.

Indigenous businesses simply need more support from the State. That is why I recently launched my document on local employment offices and on creating a stronger agency for them on par with IDA Ireland. While foreign direct investment is important to the regions and State as a whole, local enterprise offices can work really well if they are supported a little more.

We have proposed the establishment of a group in the Minister's Department. I ask her to make progress on that. Unfortunately, the job losses we have seen in recent days show how volatile foreign direct investors can be. They are often beyond our control, with Trump on one side and Brexit on the other. Can the Minister outline what she is doing to reduce our reliance on multinationals?

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