Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take on board both points made by Deputy Nash and both points made by Deputy O'Dowd in connection with this. I reiterate that the families of all those affected and those workers are to the forefront of our minds because it is a very significant employer that has had a generational impact within the town of Drogheda, and indeed beyond.

The national planning framework sets out a very significant designation for Drogheda to achieve capital investment into the future. We will be absolutely committing to working with the Taoiseach and others to ensure that happens. It is very important to the region. This has been demonstrated by the advanced factory unit getting planning permission on 26 June. There is work ahead to market it. We will work with Becton Dickinson into the future as well in its other locations. We will also try to see what we can do when we discuss it with management. I am happy to meet with SIPTU to see what can be achieved through the globalisation fund, but the bar is significantly high in connection with that.

On the state aid aspect, it is very clear in the European Union rules that funding a current industry or a current production line is quite different from if one has a new company moving in. IDA Ireland has a lot of tools in its armoury that it can release to try to get new clients in. We will support them to do just that.

In the wider context, the issue that was raised front and centre with me and brought to my attention is the changes in the supply chain. From a sustainability perspective, quite a proportion of their market is US based and they are moving the plant on that basis. We have all seen the stress we are under with our competitiveness. This is why we have a capital infrastructure programme of €165 billion out to the next decade. Water needs to be improved upon right around the country. I note that the regulators came out saying they need a 70% increase in price. That is very significant. I have written to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Hermitage in connection with that. We need to ensure we are remaining competitive. That is a big concern in the economy. We must keep improving our grid infrastructure, our water and our wastewater. There is a huge amount of work to be done in that regard. We will obviously do that and play our part as I have done in the 13 weeks I have been in this job.

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