Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The news that emanated from the midlands yesterday was very serious. It has been flagged for the past month and my colleague, Deputy Robert Troy, had raised the issue of these jobs, which was also covered in the local newspapers in recent weeks. We have talked about Brexit ad nauseam but this shows one of the repercussions. While the 170 jobs lost might not be directly linked to Brexit, it played a very influential part in their loss.

I call on the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to come to the House to address the issue. It is another blow for the midlands. We discussed the Imperial Tobacco factory in Mullingar only recently. There seem to be continual blows to general manufacturing in the midlands. I appreciate having the time to raise this issue in the House. We all have to pull together to try to sustain what jobs we can, and this is particularly important in areas outside the M50 belt.