John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue which follows the announcement on Monday of 80 job losses at Homecare Medical Supplies in County Mayo. This results from the ending, on 31 January, of a contract it has had with the HSE for recycling aids and appliances. The first thoughts of all of us in a situation like this are with the workers themselves and their families coming up to Christmas. Of the 80 jobs lost, 50 are in Kiltimagh and 15 are in Ballyhaunis, which is a huge number in an area which has suffered difficult times and unemployment over the years. It would be similar to the loss of 500 jobs in a large urban area. This part of County Mayo has a number of small towns which have suffered the closing of banks and district courts, such as Swinford and Charlestown.

I welcome the fact Homecare Medical Supplies has stated the 70 remaining jobs are safe. The company operates to the highest standards and these jobs will be unaffected. With regard to the contract which has been lost, has a new contract been put in place or is there a new tendering process? Is it possible that Homecare Medical Supplies could win a new tender and that these jobs could be saved? Will the Minister ensure every support possible is put in place for the workers and their families so they can access their entitlements immediately? Will opportunities be put in place, such as training and upskilling, for these workers? This is a huge issue in the area.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing us raise this issue. As Deputy O'Mahony stated, Homecare Medical Supplies has, since 1988, been an excellent home-grown company, very well run by the McGuinness family. It will maintain 70 positions, but 50 will be lost in Kiltimagh and 15 will be lost in Ballyhaunis.

It is a massive blow to those areas. This is a company with a very proud and rooted tradition in east Mayo and one that has really grown with the community there.

For some time I have been raising my concern that companies such as this, whose interests are purely domestic and which may not be in the export market, are getting lost in the infrastructure of job support. I believe more support needs to be given to such companies. This relates specifically to a contract it has lost, and Deputy O'Mahony has also raised queries in this regard. We have to look at the way in which we do contracts in this country. While I know this is not an issue that comes under the Minister's specific remit, the Government is spending billions of euro and we have to look at how we are spending that money, if we are parcelling those contracts, in order that small Irish companies such as Homecare Medical can have the opportunity to create employment.

We need a very focused training initiative to move into east Mayo to assist the workers. While there are employment opportunities, workers may not have the skills to match those opportunities. If we move very quickly with the various new operations that are there, we can match up those people who have been made redundant. There are just over 12,000 people on the live register in County Mayo and we need to offer those people who want to work the chance to do so within the opportunities that exist.

I have spoken before about the work Mayo County Council is doing through the economic investment unit that has been established by the county manager within the county council. This has the potential to be the blueprint for local authority involvement nationwide. This is its first big challenge. I hope the Minister will give that unit the support that is necessary in order to support the communities of Kiltimagh, in particular, and Ballyhaunis, which have taken more than their fair share of the impact of the downturn in recent years.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I absolutely agree that at this point our sympathy is clearly with the workers who have received this very unwelcome announcement. I understand 80 people were advised on 1 November that they would lose their jobs at the company by 31 January 2014. As Deputies have acknowledged, the company is retaining 70 jobs. This is a rationalisation plan, which is obviously a commercial matter for the company itself.

As the Deputies have said, Homecare Medical Supplies is run by the McGuinness family. The company supplies health care equipment, disposables and daily living and mobile aids to the HSE, hospitals, nursing homes and the community care, pharmacy and retail sectors, so it has contracts other than with the HSE. Its head office is in Ballyhaunis, with a service centre in Kiltimagh and retail stores in a number of towns, including Ballyhaunis, Castlebar, Cavan, Cork, Galway and Dundalk. The company confirmed that 50 jobs will go in Kiltimagh service centre, 15 in Ballyhaunis and a further 15 in Clonee, County Meath. The company stressed that this is only part of its business and the remaining 70 jobs will be unaffected.

The company is a client of Enterprise Ireland, so it is not a company that is falling through the crevices, as Deputy Calleary fears. Enterprise Ireland stands ready to support the company through its full range of services. To take up Deputy O'Mahony's point, the HSE has a new tendering process and the date for the closure of tender applications is in about a week's time. As I understand it, the decision has been made by the company that it will not be entering a tender into that process. Clearly, if Enterprise Ireland can assist the company in any way it will stand ready to do so, but the company appears to have made a decision in this matter on commercial grounds.

I assure the House there will be every support for workers through both the Department of Social Protection and the other services, whether it be our own employment rights support services or the various services of the training and support agencies, which will be available to the workers. On the wider question of procurement which was raised by the Deputy, this remains an important issue. We need to have good protocols in regard to public procurement, which, while achieving value for money, must also allow innovative SMEs to have an opportunity to tender. Enterprise Ireland is seeking to develop expertise in that field, and it has worked with many companies and facilitated joint tendering and other approaches. I am heartened by the fact that the new procurement officer, Mr. Paul Quinn, has become involved explicitly with SME access to the procurement structure. That is a good omen for the future, although it continues to be a concern of businesses as they tender for projects. Clearly, I cannot comment on the individual case that is involved here as I am not privy to the details of it. However, I assure the Deputies that all of our agencies will work with both the workers and the broader community to find alternatives and a way out for people.

On the wider issue, it is encouraging to see that employment in the west, as recently published by the CSO, is up by 4,200 in the last 12 months, so there are clearly signs of some positive job movement within the region, on which we can hope to build.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his extensive reply, which dealt with some of the specific questions we put. On the wider issue, I understand that certain commercial issues cannot be discussed here. However, the kernel of the matter seems to be procurement. If, as the Minister said, the company has made a commercial decision not to tender, there is an issue in that regard.

I welcome many of the pro-business and pro-jobs provisions of the recent budget but I believe there is a case, as mentioned by Deputy Calleary, for positive discrimination to benefit smaller towns and rural areas within whatever policies can be formulated to allow them to compete on a level playing field. That will be important for the future.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Homecare Medical is an example of an innovative SME. If it is having a problem with this process, my suggestion is genuinely that the problem is with the process. This company is not afraid of business or of hard work. If it could have met the demands of that process, it would have. We have to examine this.

I am encouraged to hear that Enterprise Ireland is working with the company. I ask the Minister to ensure that Enterprise Ireland works at the highest level with the company to try to identify other opportunities because, unfortunately, there are no other employment alternatives in Ballyhaunis or Kiltimagh. Employment in that part of the country is not growing and the only option for many is emigration. We have to try to keep as many people as possible in our small towns despite the fact that they are feeling utterly frustrated at the moment. There is a recovery taking place in some parts of the country but there are many others who are not seeing it, and they are feeling this frustration. This is one part of the country that is not seeing it. To lose 50 jobs and 15 jobs in areas that already have high rates of unemployment means that frustration is going to grow.

I ask that, first, Enterprise Ireland work at the very highest level with the national procurement service and with Homecare Medical to try to resolve whatever issues exist ahead of next week's deadline. Second, we need an all-of-government approach to assist smaller towns and more dispersed communities to be ready to gain from the upturn that may come next year.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am conscious that a tender is out and that it will have to be conducted in a way that is fair to everyone who submits a tender. I recognise that this is a very innovative company which has developed software packages that allow the management of a process in a way that was not possible heretofore. Clearly, I will seek to learn from what has happened here, see what lessons can be drawn from it and see whether there is action that could be considered. As I understand it, this is a decision the company has made and it has gone through a process in reaching this decision. As I said, Enterprise Ireland stands ready to support the company. We will seek ways in which an innovative company such as this can be assisted in developing new markets, which we are clearly anxious to do.