Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a very strong view that every Minister should see himself or herself as having a national remit. As a Dublin-based politician, I am very aware of my responsibility to be a national Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and that is exactly what I will be. It is what I tried to do, as best as I could, as Taoiseach. When I was appointing my Cabinet three years ago, we had two senior members from the west. However, when there are three parties involved and, perhaps, not co-ordinating things as well as they should, it turns up unusual results. We will co-ordinate better when it comes to the appointment of Ministers of State in the next couple of days. It is very unusual for there not to be any senior Minister from Connacht, or west of the Shannon. I have no doubt that will be rectified at the reshuffle, if not before. In the meantime, the Ministers of State, Deputies Naughton and Calleary, although not senior Ministers, are full members of the Cabinet. People argue that those Ministers of State do not have a vote, but there has not been a vote at Cabinet since the 1970s or early 1980s. Their weight and voice will be equal to those of any other member of the Cabinet. I want people to know that.

In regard to Aptar, I am informed that there will be job losses at its plant in Ballinasloe, which is very bad news. I understand staff were informed of that today and while no final decision has been made, there will be redundancies this year. Our primary concern, of course, is for the workers and families affected. Every State support will be made available to those workers to help them to transition and find new employment opportunities should that assistance be needed. The Department has agreed a job loss response protocol with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills. The protocol, which will be led by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, puts in place all the efforts designed to assist workers. This includes making sure they know about their welfare entitlements, offering job search assistance and assessing upskilling needs and opportunities. IDA Ireland is in close contact with the company in question and has offered support to try to avert any potential job losses if that is at all possible.

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