Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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In three months, 102 people from Dundalk will be out of work. The announcement was made last Friday by the Vodafone company. Of the 102 people, 82 work for Rigney Dolphin which provides services to Vodafone, while the remaining 20 work directly for Vodafone. The people affected had a very miserable weekend. Many of them are very highly qualified and have contributed to the success of Vodafone in this country. Now they face a choice between emigration and the dole queue.

I offer my sympathy to all of the individuals affected by this decision, and to their families. I implore the Minister of State to pull out all the stops on their behalf. Vodafone is a very profitable business and will probably save money by moving some of its services to India and Egypt. While the money saved can be measured, how does one measure the suffering inflicted on the people who will lose their jobs? Recently, the new Government halved the lower rate of PRSI in an effort to reduce the cost of employing people. This will definitely help Vodafone's cost base. The Government also intends to make every effort to reduce costs for employers through every means open to it.

Will the Minister of State engage with Vodafone to explain the Government's strategy and ask it to reverse its decision? The Republic is in dire straits and a little loyalty from Vodafone to the 102 people who have contributed to its profits would be very well received. As a last resort, I urge the Minister of State to establish a taskforce to replace these jobs in Dundalk as a matter of urgency. Dundalk is only a few miles from the Border. The local economy suffered greatly during the IRA campaign and has always been a victim of competition from across the Border. Dundalk cannot afford to lose 102 jobs.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Vodafone will sack more than 130 workers in Dundalk and Leopardstown and move their jobs to Egypt and India. This comes at a time when 443,400 citizens are unemployed. Clearly, Vodafone has no loyalty to Irish people. I ask the Minister of State to clarify whether Vodafone has received public funds and tax exemptions. Since it came here, Vodafone's profits have amounted to €2.2 billion with profits last year of €120 million. Vodafone takes public monies, makes huge profits and then moves on. This is the unacceptable face of globalisation and the Government must review this type of operation.

I met representatives of the Communications Workers' Union and if the Minister of State has not met them I ask him to do so. Their briefing included the minutes of a meeting with Vodafone. The union asked what will happen to workers losing jobs in Rigney Dolphin, which supplies employees to Vodafone, and whether they would be redeployed to Vodafone. It was told "No". It asked what will be the terms of redundancy for the employees. It was told this had nothing to do with Vodafone but was a matter for Rigney Dolphin. It asked whether Vodafone accepts it has a responsibility to Rigney Dolphin employees working in Vodafone and was told Vodafone has responsibility only to the business contract between Rigney Dolphin and Vodafone. The union requested that Vodafone postpone the decision to sack these citizens to enable all parties to engage in discussions with a view to finding alternatives that will save jobs and was told "No". It asked whether Vodafone can guarantee that further jobs or work will not be outsourced and was told "No". The union asked what were the cost savings involved in the jobs going offshore and was told Vodafone did not know.

This is not acceptable. The Government needs to ensure that as many of these jobs as possible are protected and that any workers who lose their jobs receive their redundancy entitlement. This needs a decisive, clear and effective response from the Government and it needs it now.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I wish to sympathise with the workers and their families. This decision was taken by Vodafone and it raises some questions which have been clearly and well articulated by the Deputies. I will not refer to my script because I honestly believe that serious questions have been raised, including the relationship with Vodafone which is a very profitable company. When the issues were raised by the Deputies, Vodafone supplied the Department with some information which would not necessarily have answered the questions put. With this in mind, I ask the Deputies to allow me some leeway so I can interact with Vodafone's public affairs section, and with Enterprise Ireland because I understand Rigney Dolphin is a client company, and so that we can examine the exact reasons the outsourcing has begun.

According to a document received from Vodafone, it is expected that at the conclusion of the consultation process the credit and collections activity will be outsourced to a specialist supplier in Ireland. Mobile data and customer operations will transfer to an existing group subsidiary based in Egypt and mobile back office will transfer to a subsidiary company based in India. I also understand that Ireland is not the only country affected by the Vodafone move. The group also moved call centre operations from Germany to Egypt.

Rather than give the Deputies a pro forma answer, I ask them to allow me some leeway. Deputy Adams referred to the Communication Workers' Union and if it has been in touch with him, I would be more than happy to field a telephone call from it on this matter. I cannot give any guarantees as it was a corporate decision. All I can say is that we are committed to trying to retain jobs. The State agencies in this region as well as the Louth County Enterprise Board will continue to promote Dundalk as a centre for inward investment and enterprise development.

I acknowledge the Deputies have raised some interesting points. Vodafone employs 1,200 staff in various locations in Ireland which is a significant investment in this country and that must be acknowledged. However, questions have been raised this evening and perhaps this merits further examination. I would be happy to oblige the Deputies in so far as I am able to do so and I will endeavour to help them in this regard.