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

I thank the Deputies for their questions. As regards Tesco workers, pickers and drivers, that matter was not discussed at LEEF. Individual disputes rarely are discussed at LEEF but sometimes they are touched on. There are mechanisms for disputes to be resolved, such as the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Labour Court. I would encourage Tesco to sit down with Mandate. Provided the workers want Mandate to represent them, Tesco in those circumstances should sit down with Mandate and discuss any issues that have arisen. Whether or not they can be made to agree is an entirely different thing, as I think people will appreciate, but engagement is the least that should happen.

As regards Deputy Ó Murchú's question about respite in Dundalk, I am not up to date on that but I will check the position with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. The truth is that we are experiencing recruitment and retention problems almost everywhere at the moment. It is a feature of full employment. Perhaps one of the unintended consequences of achieving full employment is that there really is not any sector of the economy where we do not have labour shortages now. They are in the public sector and in the private sector; they are in the towns and the cities; they are in well-paid jobs and in not-well-paid jobs; and they are in big businesses and small businesses. Just increasing pay or improving terms and conditions will not necessarily solve the problem. We have many more jobs available than there are people adequately skilled or qualified to fill them. That is why we need to increase the number of people who are trained for particular jobs and use our work permit system to bring in from overseas people who either have the skills or are willing to work in the particular areas concerned.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of a stakeholder forum in the audiovisual sector. As he said, there are claims and counterclaims, and it is hard to know what is true and what is not. I do not think a stakeholders' forum could have any investigative powers - that is not how forums work by their nature - but it is not a bad idea on the face of it, and I will certainly bring it as a proposal to the attention of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, given that she is the person who is responsible for the sector. We are supporting the sector in its growth with very generous tax incentives, which we put in place largely because we are competing with other countries that are doing the same. It is a sector that we will see expand, but it is important that there are proper career paths and a degree of economic certainty for the people who work in the sector. I know that the Deputy has raised this many times and that he is sincere about it. I will certainly speak to the Minister about it.

As regards Tara Mines, I know the situation is having a huge impact on Navan and on County Meath. It is about the hundreds of people who are losing their jobs and experiencing major reductions in their incomes. It is also about the wider impact on the payroll being lost in Navan and the wider area. There has been a lot of engagement by the Government. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, has been very engaged in this matter. Only a few moments ago Deputy Bríd Smith gave the Minister a backhanded compliment by asking that he take an interest in the Iceland dispute to the extent that he took an interest in the Tara Mines dispute. There is a WRC agreement now. It is to be hoped that this agreement can be honoured. The Government will work with the company to try to get the mine reopened. We would like to see it open within months and we are of course willing to talk to the company about issues such as royalties and electricity costs. However, what it is saying now very clearly is that with the price of energy being high and the price of zinc being low, the mine just is not viable. We do not have any proposals to nationalise the mine. To do so we would have to pay the owners I do not know what amount of compensation. That is what happens when you nationalise something: you have to pay the owners compensation for it. It is a compulsory purchase, essentially. Also, it is loss-making. Our country has spending ceilings. I would not like to divert money from housing, education and pensions to nationalise a mine which would then lose money. That does not make sense, from my point of view.

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