Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I am glad to have the Minister in the House. Go raibh maith agat a Chathaoirligh. Gabhaim buíochas duit an ábhar tábhachtach seo a roghnú maidir le na h-oibrithe thuas i nDún na Rí i gContae na Mí a bhfuil i ndáirire ar stailc agus a bhfuil "blocade" ar siúil acu ó lár mí na Nollaig seo chaite.

I raise the issue of the Lagan Brick factory. If this factory were in a main town or city it would be occupying the main news headlines on a daily basis. Since the middle of December the workers in the Lagan Brick factory, who have been treated appallingly by their bosses, have been engaged in a combination of blockading the factory and, since last Saturday, on official picket. They are now almost 12 weeks on that blockade, which is the same length of time involved in the Vita Cortex workers case, but they have received none of the publicity or praise. My heart goes out to those men because they are not looking for publicity or praise. They seek only their entitlements and their rights.

On behalf of the workers I plead with the Minister to intervene in this dispute in an effective way because no intervention has been forthcoming. In terms of what will happen without an intervention, first, Ireland's only brick factory will close down. This industry is traditional to that area, and there are no other brick factories in the country. Second, many workers will lose their jobs including workers from County Meath, where the factory is based, County Cavan, in which the main town of Kingscourt is located, County Monaghan and County Louth. As the Minister is aware, there are a number of issues associated with employment law that have not been resolved satisfactorily. Many of the workers in the plant have served for over 20 years but are receiving only statutory redundancy and a slightly higher offering from the company. This is not acceptable. It now seems to be common practice for companies to offer only statutory redundancy in the belief that the State will pay.

The announcement was made before Christmas in the aftermath of the budget. Had it anything to do with the budgetary announcement on redundancy payments? There was a warning in that regard at the time. The Minister must intervene. The staff in question are beaten down and totally disheartened. They do not seem to be receiving any support, certainly no official support. I plead with Lagan Brick, a very substantial company that relies on goodwill throughout the country, to use its goodwill and protect it by re-entering talks in the Labour Relations Commission. I urge the Minister to intervene on behalf of the workers and the brick industry in Ireland. It should not be closed down on a day when we are talking about doing everything possible to ensure job security. While we are talking of job security, we are allowing a very important industry, a brick factory, to close down. I ask the Minister for a substantial response. The workers in counties Meath and Cavan are looking forward to hearing it.