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

The Deputy can be assured that the Government will do the best we can and work might and main to find an alternative employer or investor for the facility. It would be a shame to see it go unused. The company says it will work with us on this, but it would be a new company coming in and probably producing something different. I was talking to the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, about this the other day. We are very keen to put Government resources behind Kerry and to make sure it gets its fair share of investment. In the past ten years the number of IDA jobs in County Kerry has increased by 48%, so it is going in very much the right direction. That might fall back a bit this year, but I think we will be able to make progress again in the years ahead. One thing that will be absolutely crucial for the county, as we all appreciate, is getting our tourism industry up and running again because Kerry is Ireland's premier county when it comes to tourism. This is why we took the decisions we took in the July stimulus package only last week to put in place a stay-and-spend scheme, which I hope will be useful to the tourism industry in Kerry from October onwards. We are also extending the wage subsidy scheme well into spring of next year and allowing those employers to take on seasonal workers who were not on the payroll in February. This was one of the big asks that employers had. It is therefore hoped we will start to see some of those jobs coming back.

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