Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A lot of what the Tánaiste said is factually correct but will be of little comfort to the workers involved. On 18 August, I wrote to the Tánaiste asking him specific questions that the workers in BD Foods had asked but to which they had not received satisfactory responses from the other Minister, who the Tánaiste has managed to mention three times in his response. One question was in regard to the back to education grant. These workers are currently on the Covid payment and if they go back to education, that payment will be reduced. I asked whether the Minister would address that for companies such as this one. Other workers are investigating the possibility of establishing similar businesses to BD Foods and the information they got from the local enterprise office is that because it is a service -type industry, they can be offered no practical support. Furthermore, the workers have asked whether the Department has any evidence of engagement with the company prior to the announced closure. It happened incredibly quickly in the midst of the Covid pandemic and some of the workers believe this was actually a ruse by the company. I got no response to the email of 18 August and to a further email on 6 October. Perhaps the Tánaiste can answer the questions now.

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