Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister of State is aware that 491 jobs are in the balance at the moment. Liquidators have been appointed to the Arcadia group, which runs shops such as Topshop, Topman and Wallis, as well as concession stores.

I am sure the Minister of State will agree the first objective must be to save these jobs and to do so to the greatest extent possible. I join Mandate, the workers' trade union, in calling on the Government today to ensure we do not have a Debenhams mark 2. What steps will Minister of State take, in the first instance, to safeguard these 491 jobs?

They are people who will work throughout Christmas, when their future is very uncertain. I am sure the Minister of State will join me in feeling for them. It is okay to have a job, but not knowing whether one will still have it in January must be harrowing.

The second objective is to prevent a Debenhams mark II. These workers have a collective agreement that governs redundancy. They are very anxious, as is their union, that theirs will be a case similar to Debenhams and that they will find themselves in the same circumstances as the Debenhams workers whose employer walked away. They are appealing to the Government to take action.

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