Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste's remarks and his commitment to having a meeting. He will appreciate that I might be a bit frustrated. In two letters from me over the course of a month, I did not get anywhere. Then in an oral exchange in this Chamber I have now got a commitment to a meeting. However, I will take that in good faith and we can certainly work together.

If two such announcements involving more than 540 job losses happened anywhere else in the State, I am sure that a slew of Ministers would be travelling to that location to say how hard they were working to ensure that there would be no further announcements and that they would give as much support as they possibly could to the workers affected. Some of the remarks made, particularly the Sudocrem announcement about the site in which it was operating, were particularly concerning. I hope the Tánaiste will appreciate that we are trying to protect the futures of the workers involved and also to ensure that the remarks made by the withdrawing companies will not be replicated in the coming period.

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