Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I have raised the need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline the efforts being made to attract major employers into the north west and to secure existing employment that will impact on County Donegal given the ongoing employment difficulties since the decline of the textile industry and taking cognisance of the recent plant closure announcement by Seagate.

I empathise and sympathise with the workers of Seagate in the Limavady plant. As a Member for over a decade I am too familiar with the decline of the manufacturing industries. Primarily, in Donegal it was the female-dominated textile industry. Fruit of the Loom was good to workers and generous in its redundancy packages. The same cannot be said for companies such as Clubman Omega. The redundancy package can assist people in the immediate fallout from their job loss but also can be the key to some people beginning their own initiatives. There is some evidence of this in Donegal after the decline of the textiles industry. I offer that as some small comfort to those in the north-west directly affected by this week's announcement by Seagate.

There are more involved than the significant figure of 930 workers. There are their families and the service industries in the region. Each have thrived on the fact that paid employment gave families a disposable income. Nearly 1,000 workers being laid off in a city like Dublin would have a big impact. Can any Member really contemplate how that number impacts on a small rural community? We in Donegal know of it at first hand. This situation is compounded by the fact that the company has a sister plant in Derry and the obvious question, despite assurances to date, is how safe are those jobs?

Some may ask what have Limavady and Derry to do with Donegal? There is proximity geographically and politically through the north-west region cross-Border group. The same issues concern all of us, namely, attracting employment into the region, training employees and ensuring the word "access" is delivered on. Last week on the Adjournment I raised the need for a direct train service from Dublin to Derry to improve access to the area. I was basically told we had air access and a road under construction and given that we had an hourly bus service a train was not needed.

I should like the Minister of State to convey to the senior Minister that the time for platitudes to the north-west must end. We have had FÁS training and some important changes to the back to education allowance, as well as innovation for some as regards support towards going back to education and investment in addressing early school leaving. We also have had improvements in basic infrastructure. However, we must recognise that the north west should not be without a train service if the rest of the country is entitled to one. We have to overcome issues that are of a cross-Border nature.

I am pleased Senator Doherty is a Member of the House because we have issues such as the DUP and Sinn Féin standing over the introduction of third level fees in the North which is disenfranchising Donegal and other Border students. We must recognise, financially, the effects the Troubles have had on Donegal specifically and the west of the Bann, in Ulster terms. We have woken up to a new dawn — there is relative peace; there is a local Administration in the Six Counties but in the nine-county Ulster there is an historical deficit of investment.

This new dawn links into the ongoing march of progress in the east, whereby other regions and counties are wealthy enough, through their business bases, to contribute in kind to ongoing infrastructural development. We in Donegal are expected to turn around with no oars the tide of historical under-investment in infrastructure. The yachts on the rest of the island can rise to that challenge. The reality of where we are coming from must be faced.

I spoke of under investment. Let us call a spade a spade. For decades we did not have an input into, for example, the A5 being upgraded or an air service linking east Donegal with Dublin via Derry. The trains were more often blown up or threatened than running. Businesses could have been described as brave or foolish to consider investing. This has all moved on. We now need a strong and real commitment to provide real jobs in our region and not have a movement of existing businesses over the Border and back again. We have a movement of people to and from locations for work on construction sites. Should the building trade slow, as is forecast, even that source of opportunity will dry up and this needs to be pre-empted for the males involved.

Results to date have not been encouraging. The Minister of State is new to the portfolio and I am aware that he knows about the recent investments that have taken place as regards jobs. I have spoken to him about locations abroad where he has met people who were employers in Donegal. I ask him to take an interest in the north west region. I ask him to commit tonight to turning the tide around with a strategic view of what needs to be done, in co-ordination with the relevant bodies. Together the north west can bounce back but only when that "together" is an all embracing all-Ireland priority and focus. I like to believe that focus will be gained under the Minister of State and Deputy Martin, the senior Minister. We talk about North-South ministerial councils and the brand new dawn. We want to see this brand new dawn yielding something that transcends borders. The Border has been blurred by many things that have occurred in recent times, but there is an east-west divide in this country that also needs to be addressed.

As regards housing, we talk about location, location, location. For business and investment it is access, access, access. I hope the Minister is able to outline what is going on and what can be done to ensure we get what we are entitled to, namely, the same chance as everywhere else on the island of Ireland to attract investment and ensure employers come to the north west, where they will have a better quality of life and potential than in many other regions. I ask the Minister to give that commitment tonight in order that the north west may recover from the effects of such awful announcements as were made this week.