Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I feel like a real killjoy today but I am again not accepting the Senator's amendment. Again, it is because we already do all this stuff. We do not provide employment supports just because a crisis is imminent, as there are crises in businesses today for some other reason. It is slightly different from what Bord na Móna is experiencing or some of the other companies that we know will see difficulties arising from the changes we will make in practices or habits. There will be difficulties in companies because of what will potentially happen with Brexit. How we support companies, regardless of why they are in crisis, will not change.

I have a list of actions we currently take after a company gets into trouble. Before somebody gets to a redundancy stage, we take a number of steps. I do not know if the Senator is aware of our wage support subsidy scheme. When a company tells us it is in trouble, or specifically that in six or 12 months it might not be able to keep on all its employees, we will support those people in the short term and keep up their income supports. That will happen while the company tries to get through its difficulties and come out the other end. If the scenario is we can support the people in the short term but we know they will not be brought back, we will work with those people and retrain them during the transition period for new jobs that we know are being created in some other section of the economy.

When we look at the challenges that might be seen with regard to the live register next year, potentially because of Brexit and the just transition from where we are to where we need to be in the next ten years to reach climate change targets, some companies may lose jobs but tens of thousands of jobs will be created because of the new economy. We have already put in place schemes and strategies to move people from a particular industry skill set to train for new industries that will grow in the next months and years ahead. We already do what the Senator is asking us to do. I have a long list of such actions that I hope will reassure the Senator, and I can read them into the record if she so wishes.