Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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This matter refers to a company with which the Acting Chairman, Deputy Frank Feighan, is familiar, given that he represents south Leitrim from where some of the employees come to the Cavan office.

I express serious disappointment at the announcement that Liberty Insurance is planning to cut 270 jobs at its offices in Cavan, Enniskillen and Dublin. According to the company, the jobs will be phased out in the next 18 months as it seeks voluntary redundancies. Some of the employees in Cavan, to whom I have spoken, do not regard them as voluntary redundancies but see some of them as forced redundancies, unfortunately. Just one week ago the news came as a terrible blow to staff at Liberty Insurance and also to their families and the wider community in Cavan. The cuts appear to have come out of the blue and as a result of the company's decision to withdraw from the British motor insurance market. Some 115 workers in Cavan, 20 in Enniskillen and 135 in Blanchardstown are facing very uncertain futures, many of whom have families, mortgages and other responsibilities. This is an extremely daunting prospect and my thoughts are with the workers following this most disappointing decision by Liberty Insurance.

Liberty Insurance, formerly Quinn Insurance, has been an extremely important and major employer in Cavan town since the mid-1990s. Many of the people who work on the sites in Enniskillen and Blanchardstown are also from Cavan and Monaghan, given the level of interaction and exchange between the different offices. It will have huge knock-on effects on communities, particularly in County Cavan.

The sale of Quinn Insurance to Liberty Insurance was concluded in October 2011. The company's statement last week stated it employed more than 950 people in Cavan, Enniskillen, Blanchardstown and London. In April 2011 the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, stated that, regarding the sale of Quinn insurance, he welcomed the positives in the proposed agreement in that almost all of the 1,500 jobs in Quinn Insurance would be retained. Unfortunately, in the meantime, there has been a very severe reduction in the level of employment in Liberty Insurance, from 1,570 jobs in 2011 to 950 today, with more to be lost in the immediate future.

I am glad that the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Gerald Nash, is present. I have called on the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, to engage immediately with Liberty Insurance with a view to ensuring the retention of the maximum level of employment in the company. The Minister, his Department and all of the statutory agencies must get answers from the company on the commitments it made at the time of the purchase of Quinn Insurance. These commitments are not being honoured. The Minister, the Minister of State and of all the statutory agencies need to make a very serious effort to support the employees who face redundancy. The need of redundant workers in the area for retraining or upskilling must be addressed. I know that there is a very committed and highly skilled workforce in Liberty Insurance. I have known many of the individuals involved for many years and the least they deserve is the full support of the State agencies to ensure they will not be deprived of the opportunity to successfully re-enter the workplace.

The employees have been given two weeks to give notice of voluntary redundancy. A week has already passed and no assistance has been made available by the company or the statutory agencies to assist the employees in the decision-making process. There were redundancies in Quinn Insurance in 2010 and 2012. On each occasion the statutory agencies, with the company, immediately offered a very comprehensive programme to assist employees in making decisions. The Department of Social Protection, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the then VECs, the Department of Education and Skills and FÁS all worked together in a timely and appropriate manner to provide that support for workers while they had to make extremely difficult decisions. Unfortunately, one week of the two-week timeframe the employees have been given to consider taking voluntary redundancy has passed. To my knowledge, unless something happened this afternoon, no assistance has yet been made available. That is not tolerable from anyone's point of view. I hope the Minister of State will bring a message back to all of the statutory agencies and each Department involved that they must be proactive in providing the necessary assistance without delay for those who, unfortunately, face a very uncertain future.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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My Department has contacted other relevant agencies to seek a co-ordinated response by State bodies. I know that the Department of Social Protection has already been in touch with the company, with a view to arranging briefing sessions with employees. This will happen in a matter of days. They will be advised on the Intreo process, jobseeker's payments and redundancy entitlements, as well as provided with information on the available schemes in the system. One-to-one consultations can also be arranged with that Department. In addition, I have made sure the National Employment Rights Agency, for which I have responsibility, is available to advise the employees. The local education and training board, the Cavan-Monaghan Education and Training Board, and SOLAS have been asked to assess relevant courses that might be provided for staff, as appropriate.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and share his concerns about Liberty Insurance's recent announcement. The most significant issue of concern for this jurisdiction is the proposed reduction of 150 jobs in Cavan town and also the jobs reduction in Blanchardstown.

This will be a very significant blow to Cavan town. I appreciate that and accept it is a difficult time for all the staff. It is incumbent on the agencies of the State to assist them in every way possible.

Deputy Smith outlined the reasons for the redundancies. The company conducted a strategic review of its businesses and will as a result withdraw from the personal motor insurance market in Great Britain and make significant changes to its operations here in Ireland. The company is now focusing solely on the Republic of Ireland market. I am quite encouraged by its statement that it is fully committed to the country notwithstanding the difficulties around the job losses it announced. These will be voluntary-led redundancies and will not take place immediately but will be phased out over 18 months. Despite this bad news there has been one positive job creation development by that company in Ireland. In 2013 it announced the creation of 150 jobs in an information technology project in its Blanchardstown operation. This project is not affected by the recent announcement.

At the time of the 2011 purchase of Quinn Insurance the commitment given by Liberty as part of the takeover was that the 1,570 in both jurisdictions, North and South, would be transferred under the EU’s protection of employees rights and transfer of undertakings. This did not, does not and never would guarantee that these job levels would be retained indefinitely. Unfortunately, no new employer could be expected to give such a blanket guarantee especially in a volatile and changing market. I know that in his heart of hearts, Deputy Smith would understand that. Our immediate focus rests on the instruction the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, issued to IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to redouble their efforts at job creation in County Cavan and to explore all options to replace the jobs lost there.

The past couple of years have been good in the Cavan-Monaghan area. It is encouraging to see the strong performance of a number of Irish-owned companies in recent times and several of them cross two counties. Companies such as Lakeland, Combilift, Swift Fine Foods and Glanbia have expanded their operations and made a huge contribution to job creation. It is encouraging that in 2014 the IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland job base grew by 9% and that there was an 11% increase in the number of jobs created by the local enterprise office, LEO, in the area, which is a very good performance by any stretch of the imagination. This shows the huge contribution the LEOs are making to the development of small and micro-enterprises in communities up and down the country.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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One aspect of the proposed redundancies in Cavan has been brought to my attention. I happen to know a few of the employees in the claims division of the company. I understand that between 30 and 40 staff comprise the claims department in the Cavan office. Their role is being relocated to Blanchardstown. The decision does not make sense to someone outside the company, particularly to the employees in that division. It would be very difficult for those people to relocate. Many of them live west of Cavan town and further afield and commuting to Blanchardstown is not the easiest or cheapest proposition. Their collective experience and corporate knowledge will be lost if they do not relocate to Blanchardstown. The decision to move one division in tototo a different location brings the possibility of a sizeable loss of the current staff of that division.

The Minister of State mentioned, as did the Minister, Deputy Bruton, in reply to a parliamentary question, that an additional 150 jobs have been created in the IT department in Blanchardstown. I welcome the creation of jobs anywhere on the island. The Minister stated in his reply that the State, through IDA Ireland, will continue to engage with the company to seek to influence corporate decisions and to broaden the scope of their operations here. Will the Minister of State, the Minister, the Department and the statutory agencies make a case in regard to the division I alluded to and try to reverse the job losses that will affect Cavan? Cavan-Monaghan being my constituency is my main worry. The Enniskillen side is a loss to us as well because many Cavan people work there too. I appeal to the Minister of State. There is a two-week timeframe for applying for voluntary redundancy. In his reply the Minister of State said that within days the statutory agencies will be in place. The two weeks will be up and the guidance, assistance and personal support will not have been given in time. We have to be conscious, as the Minister of State knows from his former work experience, that people who must make difficult decisions must be as well informed as possible. When redundancies occurred in that company the statutory agencies, along with the company, were very active in putting in place an immediate support system for people who had to make decisions about seeking redundancy.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I will relay those concerns to the Minister and to the agencies concerned. I agree it is very important that our State agencies swing into action to support people in the difficult decisions they have to take and ensure they have the complete information they need to make an informed decision. I am not aware of the specifics about the claims department but I assure the Deputy I will relay those concerns to the Minister.

We have had a difficult few years in this country but we are back in business and the recovery is accelerating and it is important that we say we want to see a jobs recovery that is balanced across the country. Much of the evidence shows that the Border region, which includes my county, Louth, has been making significant progress in adding jobs and making significant reductions in the live register over the recent past. As recently as the third quarter of 2012 the unemployment rate in the region was 17.7% but by the first quarter of this year that had fallen to 10.2%, which is still high. We are working every day, might and main, to have full employment across the country and that includes across the regions. An additional 18,000 jobs have been put in place in the Border region and that is an impressive achievement.

Jobs in Government supported companies in Cavan, supported by the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs, have increased by 7% in recent years, following the crash. Ensuring that our regional jobs growth is accelerating across the country means that we must take discrete regional approaches. The Minister and I recently co-chaired a stakeholder forum in Carrickmacross for the Louth, Cavan and Monaghan areas to work with private industry and the public agencies in the Border region to identify sectoral opportunities for job creation that would be unique to the Cavan, Monaghan and Louth areas and the Border region in general. That was a very successful process. We intend to publish that plan in the autumn. It is one of eight regional action plans for jobs which we believe can deliver sustainable job growth for each and every region in the country, including the Border region which I and Deputy Smith represent.