Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

It appears that up to 500 jobs will be lost at Waterford Crystal. A company which employed thousands of workers a number of years ago will be down to about 600 or 700 people. The jobs are to be outsourced to eastern Europe where the cost of labour and services are much lower. The strength of the euro against the dollar is another factor. We in Ireland have lost our competitiveness, a matter we have debated here on a number of occasions. We are sliding down the global competitiveness index which was published recently. The increases that were awarded and accepted by the Taoiseach, Ministers, judges and higher civil servants sends out the wrong message where competitiveness is concerned.