Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue on the Adjournment this evening. There is considerable interest in it and others wish to share time. I suggest Senators McCarthy and Cummins take one minute each and I will speak for three minutes.

The company concerned, Freescale Semiconductors Ireland Limited, is a company that has taken over an operation established by the Motorola Corporation in Cork Airport Business Park in recent years. It is a high-tech, high-spec. business that employs 47 people. It is exactly the type of business we should be seeking to have prosper in our new knowledge economy.

All the 47 employees are university graduates and 37% hold Masters degrees and a further 10% are of PhD standard. Not only are they largely Irish-based but they have attracted people of ability from other parts of the world, such as Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, France and the United Kingdom. It is a business whose employees have more than a dozen years' experience on average, yet the average age is only above 30 years old. On all these grounds, this is precisely the type of innovative business we should seek to have thrive in a new economy.

International global circumstances are not what they could and should be. As the company operates in the new technology area there are high levels of competition. I hope the response from the Minister of State this evening will indicate the role played by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment through various State agencies to ensure there is a future either in the existing business by way of purchase by another company or by using the existing skill set to establish a new company. We should make every effort possible in this regard.

Discussions at a local level with the IDA indicate the position is serious. It is making every effort, and appropriate political signals coming from the Department will help the process. It is not only an engine for providing employment in terms of research, development and innovation, and a number of patents have been put forward by the company, half of which are going towards new projects. The firm has been responsible for strong relationships in the research and development area with local universities and others involved in trying to advocate the information technology idea.

On all these grounds, I value the opportunity to speak this evening to express my concern as a local representative in the Cork area. I know that is shared by other Senators and I hope the Minister of State can give some cause for optimism that the ongoing situation can be rescued.