Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not surprised that the Government side is applauding the fact that the unemployment rate is down and I would certainly be very happy for anybody who has been out of work and has found work. I hope that continues, but it is cold comfort to 160 people in Carrick-on-Shannon and the surrounding areas of my hometown in County Leitrim, who are losing their jobs this morning in the MBNA office in Carrick-on-Shannon. A workforce of 200 will be left in a state-of-the-art building which housed some 1,100 employees from all over the hinterland of Carrick-on-Shannon when it opened. There are people in my hometown of Drumshanbo who will be out of work today.

What have the Government and the IDA been doing about it? They have been doing damn all, with due respect. There has been one visit by the IDA to my county in the last couple of years and we do not even know where it was. Here we have a highly-skilled workforce in the financial sector, a state-of-the-art building and a willingness and enthusiasm by the local authority and local elected representatives to welcome any company that would come into that building. In fact, yesterday a high-powered delegation from Leitrim County Council, led by my colleague, the chairman, Councillor Paddy O'Rourke, with the CEO of Leitrim County Council and the county enterprise officer, Joe Lowe, met the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Simon Harris, who has responsibility for the financial sector as well as Government procurement.

I am pleading with the Government to do something for my part of the country. There is an unevenness about employment prospects in this country. If one happens to live on the east coast, one has a far better chance of getting a job with some of the foreign multinationals that come in here, but what is the Government going to do about County Leitrim? What is it going to do about Carrick-on-Shannon and the workers who are now without work four or five weeks before Christmas? What will they tell their children? Will they tell them there will be no Santa this year? The Government should get real about what is happening in rural Ireland. The national figures may look great, but on the ground there are people who are suffering because they are out of work. They should not be out of work. If we are to believe that the economy is moving fast and that it is improving, where are the jobs? I am pleading with the Government and I am asking the Leader that Deputy Richard Bruton, the Minister responsible, would come into this House and outline the Government's policy on regional development and the provision of jobs in counties like my own and in towns like Carrick-on-Shannon.