Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I thank Senator Boyle for the opportunity to speak on his matter on the Adjournment this evening. The Senator has raised a majority of the points, but I will revisit a few of them.

These are 47 high-skilled people, with nearly half having Masters degrees and 10% have PhDs. Many of these employees were working with pioneering IT firms abroad and returned to join this company in Cork. It was established in 1998 with just two employees as part of the now-closed Motorola facility based in Mahon. It attracted global talent, with six people from Silicon Valley alone. It was a key contributor to the 3GSM World Congress and it has a strong relationship with local universities and innovative centres. It was a leading provider for BlackBerry products.

In his election address the Taoiseach highlighted the importance of scientific research to Ireland's future prosperity and as the key driver of economic success. The world class graduates the Government refers to in the strategy for science, technology and innovation programme would look to companies like Freescale in Cork for their future employment.

We are asking for full support from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to keep these highly skilled and qualified design engineers in Ireland. This is a knowledge economy. We cannot allow this opportunity to be wasted by allowing those highly skilled workers to leave this country.