Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. My thoughts are with the workers at BOSE and their families as they face into an extremely difficult time following the announcement of the pending closure of the plant in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan. The Minister hoped to be present for this debate after attending the meeting yesterday, but the Dáil schedule changed and he had to take a motion. He sends his apologies as he would have liked to be here. I will get him to contact Members if there are questions I cannot answer.

The sudden and unexpected nature of the announcement to transfer production to Malaysia and Mexico was very upsetting for the staff, many of whom have very long service with the company and shown considerable flexibility and adaptability in work practices during the years. Lean management practices, as referred to by the Senator, made the plant cost-effective. In addition, the decision to close so quickly, with final closure announced for April and activity and employment levels winding down before then, is a further blow for the loyal employees.

As soon as the announcement was made, the Minister arranged for his officials to contact SOLAS, the further education and training authority; the Department of Social Protection and the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, to ensure the relevant State bodies could play their part in providing appropriate assistance for the employees. The Senator referred to education, training and promoting their skills. SOLAS, the main authority involved, is trying to organise and co-ordinate this activitiy. I can go through exactly what it can do, but it is so important that it try to keep the guys together as a unit.

The Minister spoke by telephone to a senior executive of BOSE Corporation in the United States last Monday night and is arranging a meeting with a senior executive from the United States who is travelling to Ireland later this week. This is probably the same person mentioned by the Senator. I cannot confirm who the Minister is meeting, but it is a senior executive. It will be a face-to-face meeting in which the Minister will put all of the issues we have discussed to the executive. The Minister has ensured an inter-agency group led by Enterprise Ireland has been formed. Its membership includes representatives of all the relevant State players, that is, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Social Protection, SOLAS, the education and training board, the local enterprise office and Monaghan County Council. The group is providing for a co-ordinated approach to the needs of the affected staff and some of its members were present at the meeting yesterday attended by the Senator.

The Minister has asked both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to redouble their efforts to secure new projects for County Monaghan, explore all opportunities to replace the jobs being lost in Carrickmacross and find a replacement industry for the site. IDA Ireland will work through its overseas network to pursue potential investors. It has been particularly successful in attracting major employers to the north-east region in recent years and will seek to build on this success in highlighting the advantages of County Monaghan. Enterprise Ireland - its companies in the region have been very successful in recent years - will pursue all possibilities among its client companies to seek to identify a potential replacement for the town. I reassure the Senator that everything that can be done will be done in this case. He has touched on what the agencies could do. A major part of their work will be collating the details of staff skills and the capabilities of the facility. They will put in place an activation team from the Department of Social Protection and make a presentation to the affected staff on their entitlements and available job opportunities. The local Department office in Carrickmacross will assist the staff in processing their entitlements to make claiming jobseeker's allowance easier. I hope case workers will be provided to work with affected staff to make sure they are kept job-ready. The key is marketing their skills as a unit because it is an attractive site with attractive people working on it. There are, therefore, a lot of the ingredients needed to persuade another company to locate there. All of these efforts will be made, in addition to working with BOSE Corporation management, to see what can be done to extend the period involved because the Senator is right to say the longer we can keep the plant open, the better things will be.