Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his positive reply. I hope he will engage with the administrative district members. I mentioned Kieran Bourke and the current chair, David Dunne.

There is a wonderful plant upstream, the Merck, Sharp & Dohme, MSD, facility. It is often said that foreign direct investment companies come and then go away but that company is there nearly 60 years now. It is only a few miles up the river. The Carrick-on-Suir Development Association, COSDA, is a wonderful organisation with great people involved with the business people. We have a wonderful network of schools, sporting clubs and everything else in Carrick-on-Suir. The spirit of the people cannot be questioned. They are willing to work and engage with the Minister of State in a task force with companies such as Merck, Sharp & Dohme, which helped in the past. I hope we will have a replacement plant on the site because it is so close to the road. The river is right behind it, and we got deliveries from barges long ago.

This plant has served us well. There is a dedicated workforce, some of them second generation, whose parents worked there as well. The plant precedes my birth, and I am 64 bliain d'aois. We must work sensitively with the county council, the councillors I mentioned, COSDA and companies like Merck, Sharp & Dohme and other business people in Carrick-on-Suir that have great ideas and the private employers that give great employment to people. All hope is not lost. The workers must be looked after. The plant must be kept open.

I was a bit alarmed to hear that the equipment might be moved by the parent company. Tirlán, formerly Glanbia, started off with south Tipperary farmers, ordinary people in the spirit of the co-operative society, the meitheal. We must go back and invoke that spirit again, of the late great Canon Hayes and try to revitalise this plant and get new people into it as soon as the company leaves because the wheels and cogs must be kept turning. We cannot leave it to become derelict in any way. We must work hard to try to keep it going.

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