Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me once again to raise the matter of the haemorrhage of job losses throughout Donegal. I refer in particular to losses in Donegal town and south Donegal. It is almost two years since Hospira in Donegal town announced its intention to cease production with a loss of 560 jobs. In February last year, Magee, one of the flagship companies of the Donegal textile industry, established there for more than 100 years, announced that 60 workers would be made redundant in its production sector. These two announcements dealt a body blow not only to the economy of Donegal town and south Donegal but to the confidence of the entire community, particularly the business community.

These job losses in Donegal town are only the tip of the iceberg that is the long litany of losses throughout County Donegal in the ten years since this Government and its predecessor took office. A conservative estimate is that during these ten years, 12,000 jobs were lost throughout the county. This leaves Donegal with four to five times the national unemployment rate.

Some of the job losses include 3,500 at Fruit of the Loom, 700 at Unifi in Letterkenny, 200 at Comerama in my parish, 70 at the Donegal Shirt Company, 120 at Jaybees, 140 at Nenagh Models in Castlefin, 66 at Herdman's in Ballbofey, 115 at Dianorm in Gweedore, 300 at Ruibéar Motair Teoranta, 50 at Europlas, 280 at Qualtron, 120 at BMR and 55 at Donegal Parian China in Ballyshannon. The list goes on. In 1998, a task force report called for the creation of 9,000 jobs by the end of 2005. In 2007, however, only 1,000 jobs have been created. That is the record of the Government. That is why I continuously raise it in the House.

Over three years ago Donegal town was designated as a decentralisation location for 200 staff of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. These jobs were to have been decentralised to Donegal town by the end of last year. It is now 2007 and not one job has been relocated to Donegal town. What has happened to those 200 jobs? Is there a town in Ireland which deserves to be given a higher priority than a town which has lost 700 or 800 jobs in the past two years? No wonder the town and its hinterland feel forgotten, ignored and overlooked. We regularly hear of multinationals deciding to locate in other parts of this country, and good luck to them. Time and again, Donegal, particularly Donegal town, seem to be overlooked.

There have been task force reports and interdepartmental committees but we are still waiting for some concrete results on the jobs front. Donegal has so much to offer interested industries. It has a highly skilled workforce, excellent industrial relations and two first rate IT centres in the north west — one in Letterkenny and one in Sligo. Unfortunately, 90% or more of the graduates from Letterkenny IT have had to leave the county to use their skills elsewhere. The price of housing is among the most competitive in the country. The environment is pleasant and the roads are improving yet we are still unable to attract these jobs.

An innovative solution which I advocated in the House as recently as last week is to apply a tax exemption which is already operational in the upper and mid-Shannon basins. There is no reason it should not be extended to County Donegal. It is already available in County Leitrim, the only county in the Republic with which we have a land border. It would be natural and practical to extend it to County Donegal. If that was done, it would generate much inward investment and activity and would create badly needed jobs in Donegal and in the tourism industry.

I appeal to the Minister to get in touch with the agencies and address the crying need for employment in the area. In many families the sole bread winner has been employed in one of these factories — in Hospira or Magee. Many of them have financial demands such as mortgages and the cost of educating their children. The constituency has two Ministers but it has been overlooked, ignored and taken for granted. I ask the Minister of State to outline what he, his Department and the Government are doing to redress this unemployment imbalance in Donegal.

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy McGinley for raising this matter. I can empathise with him as my own town of Youghal has lost over 760 jobs in the past two to three years so I understand the problems facing him. My sympathies lie with the workers who lost their jobs with Hospira and Magee. However, I am pleased to say that since Hospira made its announcement in respect of its Donegal plant, IDA Ireland has been working closely with the company to secure a replacement for the facility and has been very successful in this regard.

In March 2006, Abbott, one of the world's largest health care companies, announced that it was acquiring the facility from Hospira and that it planned to make a €36 million investment with the support of IDA Ireland to establish a manufacturing facility for its diabetes care products in Donegal town. This new investment will create 155 high quality jobs at full production. Abbott has now taken possession of the plant and the recruitment of key executives is under way along with the redevelopment of the site to meet the requirements of the new company.

The role of FÁS, the industrial training agency, is of particular importance in providing assistance and the agency's full range of services are made available to workers facing redundancy. FÁS has conducted on-site interviews with the staff of both Hospira and Magee. A total of 322 staff were interviewed from both companies, of which 150 are currently on FÁS training courses and a further 50 are on customised training. FÁS continues to make its full range of services available to all those made redundant.

As regards employment generally in Donegal, in July 2006 the Minister, Deputy Martin, published the report of the interdepartmental group on Donegal. This group was established at the request of the Government following a number of major job losses in the county in recent years. The group was asked to focus on the progress being made on infrastructural requirements to make Donegal a more attractive location for enterprise creation, particularly as it makes the transition from traditional to more modern and higher value-added industries.

The report showed that Donegal has no shortage of advantages and opportunities in so far as the promise of a brighter future for its inhabitants is concerned. There is a dynamic combination of State development agencies active in Donegal which are committed to enhancing the attractiveness of the county for business. These agencies have demonstrated the ability to provide a clear vision and focus for future economic development. IDA Ireland aims to pursue more knowledge-based greenfield foreign direct investment for Donegal and to convince existing IDA clients to transform their current operations into higher-value activities.

Enterprise Ireland will encourage and assist more innovative, technology-led companies and promote a greater level of start-up activity. These actions are in response to the challenges facing traditional industry in the county which is under pressure for competitiveness reasons and both agencies, as well as Údarás na Gaeltachta, are endeavouring to meet these challenges.

Enterprise Ireland has also been very active in supporting the development of community enterprise centres in the north-west region which are critical to continued enterprise development in rural areas and to the development of an entrepreneurial culture. Nine community enterprise centres in County Donegal have received funding of approximately €2 million under the community enterprise centre scheme to date. In the 2006 scheme, four applications were received from Donegal and funding was approved for two new centres. Donegal town community chamber received approval for €350,000 for the development of an 8,000 sq. ft. enterprise centre which is currently at the planning stage. This centre will act as a key resource in nurturing business start-ups and in enhancing the environment for the incubation of new business ideas. Approval was also given for funding of €300,000 for the development of a 10,000sq. ft. community enterprise centre in Carndonagh.

Also at Donegal town, IDA Ireland has commissioned architects to design a 1,000 sq. m. office building at Lurganbuoy. IDA has applied for planning for the building and a decision from Donegal County Council is imminent. It is planned to enter discussion with the private sector regarding the construction and provision of this building as soon as planning is received and I am confident that a substantial number of new jobs will arise from this initiative.

In Ballyshannon, IDA Ireland has undertaken a significant amount of site development work on the industrial estate and this work is now complete. The county enterprise board will continue to provide existing and new supports to micro-enterprises complementing the work of both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

The provision of much needed infrastructure has been highlighted as an obstacle to job creation in Donegal over a number of years. I was pleased the interdepartmental report highlighted several developments under way or planned in the areas of roads and air transport, water supply and treatment, broadband, energy and education. These have been solidified and strengthened in the recently launched National Development Plan 2007-2013. Particular emphasis has also been placed in the national development plan on North-South co-operation and developments which will be a direct benefit to Donegal. An important study on the development of the all-island economy has recently been completed and this sets out a clear and strong economic rationale for all-island economic activity.

InterTradeIreland, the all-island trade and business development body set up under the Good Friday Agreement, is supporting the development of key business networks on the island of Ireland, including the North West Science and Technology Partnership. This partnership between industry, academia and other key stakeholders is focused on strengthening science and technology-based innovation and business in the north west. I am confident we will see major advantages for Donegal flowing from continuing progress to follow the re-establishment of the political institutions in Northern Ireland.

The north-west region is a priority area for IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland as the agencies continue to market this region strongly for new investment. The job creation achieved over the past year is largely as a result of the ongoing commitment to Donegal by the State development agencies which will continue this commitment into the future. The Deputy will be aware that there have been significant employment developments for Donegal recently. In addition to the Abbott announcement, recent major job announcements include SITA, ZEUS, PowerBoard and AssetCo.

I assure the Deputy that the Government and the State development agencies are fully committed to fostering the environment for job creation in Donegal.