Mary White (Fianna Fail)

The Seanad is due to go into recess tomorrow, yet in the midst of the jobs crisis, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has failed or refused to come here, despite numerous requests, to discuss the pressures on indigenous industry. He is avoiding confronting the real issues facing Irish industry by identifying with the continued success of foreign direct investment promoted by IDA Ireland whose job and export contributions are shoring up our economy at present.

For the past week, some 600 local Irish suppliers have been left in the lurch by the midnight manoeuvring that saw the Superquinn group go into receivership and saw it acquired miraculously by the Musgrave group the following morning. The Irish suppliers, many of whom I know from my years with Lir Chocolates, are owed sums of between €10,000 and €90,000. If they are not paid they will be forced to lay off staff and go out of business altogether.

Senator Whelan has drawn the attention of the House to the fact that scores of the suppliers were issued with cheques that bounced. Behind this are the very banks that lent some €300 million to a consortium of property developers to buy the Superquinn group at the height of the property boom. It is these very banks, including Bank of Ireland, AIB and National Irish Bank, that clinically decided to put the Superquinn group into receivership and sacrifice the suppliers in such a heartless manner.