Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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With my colleagues, Deputies Joanna Tuffy, Emmet Stagg and Jack Wall, I am very concerned about the risk to more than 400 jobs at the Lufthansa Technik plant at Rathcoole, County Dublin. These are highly skilled jobs of a type of which we do not have enough in Ireland and it would be a major blow to our area and the country generally if they were lost. It is welcome that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has asked IDA Ireland to engage with this case and that there is a 30 day consultation period. I urge IDA Ireland, the management and the trade unions involved to come together to see if it is possible to do something to save all of the jobs, if possible. If it is not, it would be most welcome if an alternative operator could be found. It is very important that these jobs are kept in the country. In an ideal world I would like Lufthansa to continue because from my consultation with the workers, it has proved, up until now, to be a good employer. Everybody can empathise with the workers because they face a very bleak Christmas and an uncertain new year and every effort must be made to save as many jobs as possible. Given that we have a major expanding private airline in Ireland, I wonder if it is possible to put out feelers to see if it has jet engines that could be serviced at this plant.

I support the remarks I know Deputies Emmet Stagg and Jack Wall will make about the PWAI. Those jobs are equally important. Although fewer in number, it is very important that they be kept in Ireland.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for taking these two matters, both of which are relevant to the aerospace industry. Many of the employees of the two companies involved are constituents of mine in Kildare South and there is grave concern about their employment opportunities. This is a specialised field which we should not give away lightly. Talking about IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland being involved is one thing, but the necessity for the Minister to adopt a hands-on approach cannot be overstressed. Some of the employees have been with these two companies for 30 years. The PWAI plant has expertise that is available nowhere else. That has been proved because when the company tried to show that the work could be done elsewhere, the plants to which it intended to move the business had to send engines back to Rathcoole to have them serviced. We cannot afford to lose the high level of expertise that has been generated during the years. There has never been an industrial dispute at the company. There has been nothing but co-operation between the workforce and management to achieve a successful progressive company. The line Minister must become involved. There is no point telling me that he is close at hand, as he said in a written answer to Deputy Emmet Stagg's question. This issue is too important for such contact. It must be dealt with hands-on by the Minister. These jobs must be protected because the aerospace industry is going to progress, as we have seen with Ryanair's purchase of new airliners. We should hold onto this industry. It is important that the Minister be involved personally.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the other speakers. We are talking about viable, high quality jobs in profitable companies. According to its website, Lufthansa Technik had a turnover of €205 million in 2011. Its workers were called to a meeting last Friday when the manager read a report and talked about possible job losses. He said it was not because of the workers and that he was happy with their work. It was not due to the restructuring in which they had been involved. It was due to outside factors. These are very skilled jobs which we cannot afford to lose. The lives of 411 employees and their families are in turmoil. Many of the workers have been at the plant for 20 or 30 years. As there are many couples among them, whole families are affected. It is not just one individual but whole families. The impact is felt by families, the broader community and the local economy. Does the Minister of State accept that there is no clear rationale as to why this is happening? Is there anything he can do to secure the jobs? What, if anything, can he say to reassure the workers in the companies involved? What other State agencies have been involved? Workers want to hear what the Government is going to do about this issue. They do not want to hear that it will just stand by or that there is nothing it can do. I hope it will be able to address the issues involved.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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There is a certain irony in the fact that the Minister with responsibility for jobs is in India trying to scrape up a few jobs for us while in the background hundreds of highly skilled and important aviation maintenance jobs are on the line. We must view this against the backdrop of the loss of 1,000 such jobs in SRT. Ireland was a world leader in aviation maintenance. If these two companies are allowed to fold, we will lose that skill, on top of what already happened in north County Dublin. The loss of these jobs would be a body blow. We need only look at what happened to the workers in SRT. Many of them have not got jobs since, and that is the future that faces people in Lufthansa Technik and Pratt & Whitney, unless the Government steps in now.

There are a number of issues we must consider. Both operations have been in existence for decades. Pratt & Whitney is highly profitable, its order books are full and its pension scheme is in top class order. However, that company is now collateral damage in the parent company's dealings with Singapore Airlines. More than 75% of Pratt & Whitney's customers come from outside of the company. This is a viable business. Over decades, the workers have delivered first to market ground-breaking aircraft maintenance and engine casing works which have become an industry norm internationally. We cannot allow that to go. These companies have done very well out of the IDA. The Pratt & Whitney site was donated for a song decades ago. The company has even managed to make quite a lot of money from selling off parcels of that land in the past.

Workers have put forward a number of propositions to management, in terms of the idea of diversifying and taking in some extra work from the parent company. They have also proposed that Pratt & Whitney should consider the sale of the operation as a going concern. I want the Minister of State to assure us that the Department is fully involved in these discussions and that the State will step in if necessary. The issues are too important not to do so. The financial reports speak for themselves. These are highly viable industries.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is in India doing his job on our behalf and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, for coming in to take this debate.

I join my colleagues in expressing my support and empathy with the workers in PWAI and Lufthansa Technik. I wish to emphasise that the situation in PWAI is more urgent than critical. This is a workforce of highly skilled operatives who have a perfect industrial relations record, whose plant is highly profitable and which has a full order book. I have been in contact with the Minister and wish to thank him for his detailed response. I am aware he is employing the full resources of his Department and the agencies available to him to leave no stone unturned to try to save the industry in both plants and the valuable jobs involved. As Deputy Wall has said, the Minister needs to be involved directly, on a hands-on basis, in this matter to ensure this is achieved.

If a rescue is not possible, it is imperative that alternatives are found to ensure the valuable and unique skills of that workforce are kept in productive use.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank Deputies Wall, Stagg, Dowds, Daly and Crowe for raising this important issue. The Minister is on an important trade mission to India and regrets he is unable to be here.

I share the concerns of the Deputies in regard to the jobs being lost at Lufthansa Technik Airmotive and Pratt & Whitney Aviation International, PWAI, at Rathcoole in Dublin. My colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has been in close touch with both these cases and met with senior management from Lufthansa last Friday. Both companies have had to undertake a global review of their operations. In Pratt & Whitney's case, a decision was taken by the parent company to transfer dwindling customer requirements to a site in the US. This has resulted in the phasing out of older technologies and products. However, the company still has excess capacity across its engineering, maintenance and repair operations.

Four other such sites have been already closed by the company and this is the key determinant in its decision to cease production at the Rathcoole plant and to introduce a redundancy programme there, on a phased basis, over the next 18 months. Some 107 jobs will be impacted by the programme. PWAI has made it clear that it is fully aware of the productive nature of the Irish site and of its skilled workforce, but has said that the decision was a purely commercial one, based on wider market conditions. As Deputies will appreciate, the ultimate decision in these cases is made by the parent company, on strictly commercial grounds and on what is seen by the company as being in the best interests of the group as a whole.

IDA Ireland has met with senior management in the US to discuss the closure of the site and any options for its retention. In addition, the IDA met with management and workers' representatives at the company recently and it was agreed that the agency will liaise with the general manager at the site, with a view to helping the company create a profile of the plant, the workforce and their skills for marketing purposes by the IDA's global team. The IDA will remain in ongoing contact with PWAI during the next 12 to 18 months. In addition, the Minister has arranged that Enterprise Ireland will engage with the company to explore whatever other options might be possible, taking into account that agency's remit and experience in supporting the Irish-owned engineering sector.

In the case of Lufthansa, the decision to close the Rathcoole plant with the loss of 408 jobs was taken following an extensive review of operations, in the context of declining revenues and shrinking international market opportunities. The company has pointed out that the enhanced quality and efficiencies of the new generations of aircraft engines, with reduced need for overhaul, has impacted on their business, with fewer engines becoming available. Complex changes in the dynamics of aircraft maintenance worldwide have knock-on impacts in facilities such as those in Ireland.

The Minister is conscious of the highly-skilled workforces at both companies and has asked the IDA to explore the possibility of securing a takeover or buy-out for either company. I therefore want to assure the House that all that can be done by the State's agencies in an effort to secure a positive result for the employees is being done and will continue to be done. It is of course extremely regrettable that 107 jobs are to be lost at PWAI and 408 at Lufthansa. Both the Minister and I appreciate that these closures will have a devastating impact on employees and their families.

In the wider context, as a Government we have put in place strategies for job creation that are now starting to bear fruit. Unemployment levels have started to reduce and we have had a number of good job wins for the country in recent months. Our key driver to turn around the economy and to concentrate on job creation has been the Action Plan for Jobs and through that strategy the Government has been working to ensure we transform the Irish economy. We are in a situation where the private sector is now creating 3,000 jobs every month, thereby helping to turn around our unemployment levels. While this will be of little immediate consolation to the Lufthansa and PWAI employees and their families, it is a clear sign that Ireland is starting to see better days ahead in the jobs market.

With the right skills programmes in place and with the enterprise agencies working closely with company management, we will do all we can to try to secure a positive outcome for the PWAI and Lufthansa plants. Deputies may rest assured that the Minister will deal decisively with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and all the State agencies to try to find a solution. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland will remain in close contact with the companies and are arranging to meet with relevant company management regarding the proposed redundancies. They will arrange for a skills base of the workers involved to be put together quickly in a bid to advertise both the plants and the availability of skills to possible third parties.

This is a very competitive industry and because aircraft can be easily flown to competing facilities all over the world, it is truly global, with consequent extreme competitive pressures. Nevertheless, we have a vibrant aircraft maintenance sector which employs more than 4,000 staff, with two very successful companies at Dublin Airport and several operations at Shannon Airport, including other Lufthansa operations, and facilities elsewhere also. In total, we have 14 companies in the sector. These are skilled, high quality jobs and the two State agencies are very active in supporting their client companies in the sector. Ireland has a thriving wider aerospace sector, with several significant aircraft leasing companies supporting more than 3,000 jobs, innovative IT companies developing aviation software and engineering companies supplying components to major aircraft manufacturers.

Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply, only some of which has been circulated. I ask him to circulate the rest of it. I call on the Minister to brief us on what he can do to get on top of this issue. There is an air of pessimism in part of the Minister of State's reply, particularly with reference to Lufthansa. The fact that there is a 30 day consultation period means, I hope, that there is a window of opportunity to make progress. I urge the Minister of State to do this and anything else that can be done with regard to PWAI.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Why did the Minister meet Lufthansa and not Pratt and Whitney Aviation International? It seems from the reply that when IDA Ireland met senior management in the United States, there suddenly seemed to be a negative about the possibility of saving the company because IDA Ireland then met local management to prepare a briefing on the potential to develop the plant further. Why have we given up on this company which has everything going for it? It is profitable and has been pared to the last in the economic approach to job creation, yet the Minister has walked away from it. Will the Minister of State ask the Minister to look at the company's situation because of its profile and it has everything going for it? As other Deputies stated, we cannot afford to lose this type of industry.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State said it was regrettable that 107 jobs would be lost at PWAI and 408 at Lufthansa and that both he and the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, appreciated that these closures would have a devastating impact on employees and their families. That is an understatement. Many of the employees and their families are probably listening to this discussion and were under the impression that the jobs were still there. The Minister of State has just announced that they are gone. I hope something will be pulled out of the hat. The staff were informed by management last Friday that there was a 30 day window and were asked to come back with plans and suggestions. That is what is happening today is about. We are looking to the Government to come up with new ideas and suggestions. However, the Minister of State seems to have said the jobs are gone. That is not the message people want to hear. Perhaps I picked up on him wrong. This will be devastating not only for the employees and their families but also for the entire area. It is not one in which there is a huge amount of jobs. It has been devastated by unemployment and has some of the highest unemployment rates in the country. There is very little in what the Minister of State has said we can take back to local people. What can we say to them? Is the Minister of State saying there is nothing we can do?

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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I also highlighted the same part of the Minister of State's contribution. It is incredibly defeatist and will not be good news for the workers involved. This exposes the problem of over-reliance on the Government's strategy for multinational corporations. The problem is not the viability of the sector but that these operations do not fit in with the parent companies' plans. That is its essence. Pratt and Whitney Aviation International's Irish operation is a market leader, but it has decided, as part of a deal with Singapore Airlines, to cut off the Irish arm of the operation and allow some of the maintenance division to be developed over time in Singapore. That cannot be allowed to happen. This outfit has benefited enormously from its operation in Ireland and continues to do so. It is highly profitable and the order books are full. If it thinks it is divesting itself of this outfit, the State should step in and take it over as a going concern. The parent company does not want it, not because the work is not there but because it would then be in competition with the parent company's outfit. The other Deputies and I state it would be economic sabotage if these jobs were to go and we want the Government to go in and bat with both companies to state they are viable jobs, that the companies have got a lot out of Ireland and that it is about time they gave something back and stood by the workers. They cannot be allowed to exit.

Will the Minister of State deal with the issue of pensions in Lufthansa because there are slight differences between the two companies and workers in Lufthansa might be slightly more vulnerable than the others.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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The most positive part of the Minister of State's contribution is missing from the script circulated and I ask him to arrange to have the full script circulated as soon as possible. I am very disappointed at what he has had to say because there seems to be an acceptance that it is a fait accompli without making any real effort to reverse the decisions the companies have made or are threatening to make at least. It has been presented as black and white, that the deal is done and the job is finished. If that is the case - perhaps it is - the Minister of State needs to expand on the efforts made to find alternatives, an issue on which he touched in the last part of his script which was not circulated. All of the agencies involved and, as Deputy Jack Wall stated repeatedly, the Minister need to be involved directly in finding alternatives. We cannot afford to lose what is a very special skills base in these two companies and this particular industry.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, does not consider it a fait accompli. We are restating the facts as announced last week. The Government is actively working with IDA Ireland and the other State agencies involved and meeting the management. It is important to understand the decisions being taken by PWAI and Lufthansa arise from international economic conditions, but there is a thriving market in Ireland and the Government will do everything possible with IDA Ireland which does a very good job and Enterprise Ireland. The Minister has met one of the companies, but I cannot confirm whether he has met the other. I am quite certain IDA Ireland met it and the Deputies should be assured that no stone will be left unturned. The Minister will return from India next week and I am quite certain a meeting with all of the concerned Deputies can be arranged. I will ask him to arrange a briefing in his office with all of the Deputies who have raised the issue and to invite IDA Ireland to it in order that everyone can clearly see the potential.

This market is driven by external forces. We can create the environment in which jobs can be created and the Government has made its best efforts to make the economy more competitive, encourage enterprise and create jobs. This is a very disappointing announcement for it to make. We do not consider it to be a fait accompli and anything we and IDA Ireland can do to encourage a rethink will be done. The manufacturing sector is a key one for the economy. It is important to state the manufacturing development forum established last year by the Minister has been involved in helping to activate the recommendations contained in Forfás's manufacturing strategy. Through this initiative, the Government has a target of creating an additional 20,000 jobs in manufacturing by 2016. That is its job. However, we need to be mindful of changes in operational practice in many manufacturing areas and the aerospace sector is no different. IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are active with companies in the aerospace sector in Ireland with a view to enhancing the potential of good start-ups and encouraging the retention of overseas companies here. I know from personal experience that they have dedicated teams involved.

In general terms, it is important to remember that Ireland continues to be competitive in attracting new investment.

More than 1,000 multinational corporations have chosen Ireland as their strategic European base. Multinationals currently employ 146,000 people. The positive impacts of the Government's policies on job creation are beginning to show. In 2012, the number of jobs in IDA Ireland-supported companies increased by 12,722. This shows the effectiveness of IDA Ireland. The immediate outlook for Ireland's foreign direct investment portfolio is positive, with a strong short-term pipeline. IDA Ireland is confident of securing further investment, including a number that will be capital-intensive in nature.

I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Bruton, when he returns to Ireland next week and ask him to engage in a round-table discussion with the Deputies who raised this matter. I will also ask him to discuss it with the management of both companies and IDA Ireland in order to discover what might be done and ensure that there will be no ambiguity whatsoever. The Government cannot sway multinational companies if they have made decisions but it will certainly do everything in its power to find a resolution in respect of this matter. Deputies may rest assured that the Minister, the Taoiseach and the Government will be 100% committed to finding such a resolution.