Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Before I begin, I want to extend my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Noel Bourke. Noel was a former councillor in Edenderry and a former cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council who passed away last week. Noel was a dedicated public representative and a proud community man. His passing is a great loss to Edenderry and the county of Offaly. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

I raise the issue of the closure of the courier company Fastway, which has caused enormous hardship for employees and franchise owners right across the country. My office and I have been in contact with many of those directly affected since the closure and what we have heard is deeply troubling. Over the past two years, conditions within the company have clearly deteriorated and many people now question whether the takeover of Fastway in 2022 was a case of vulture capitalism and whether fraud or serious mismanagement was involved. Franchise owners and employees have described a situation that became more chaotic and unfair as time went on, with invoices going missing, payments being delayed or held back and commissions not being paid at all. Many were struggling just to keep their businesses afloat while waiting on money that never came. I have also been told of polygraph machines, that is, lie detector machines, being used in franchise interviews and of large cash payments being requested as part of the purchase process, raising serious questions about transparency, legality and oversight.

What is particularly cruel is that franchisees who only joined the company recently had made large financial investments, often borrowing heavily or using personal savings to buy into what they believed to be a growing business. They are now left with huge losses and no way to recover the money. One franchise owner I spoke to is now facing personal insolvency. He is owed around €50,000 by the company and owes roughly the same amount to Revenue. He had been in the process of selling his franchise earlier this year, hoping that a busy Christmas and new year period would allow him to clear his debts and move on. Instead, with the closure, he is left with nothing but debts. This is increasing stress and his livelihood is gone.

The more I hear about how the system was run, the more it sounds like a pyramid scheme. In fact, it sounds like something you would see in a Netflix documentary rather than in a modern Irish business. Both employees and franchise owners have been left abandoned without pay, without recourse and without clarity. Will the Tánaiste tell us whether there is currently any investigation under way into the management, ownership and conduct of Fastway since its takeover in 2022? If there is not, will he push for one to be launched to establish the facts, to hold those responsible to account and to ensure justice?

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