Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State touched on something when he said that the price needs to increase, costs need to be reduced and that this will lead to the cessation of this temporary lay off. The management needs to be honest with the employees as to what the nature of this temporary lay off is. The Government needs to press them on extracting an answer. This is not unprecedented. We were here before with Boliden Tara Mines DAC over a decade ago, when it did the same thing. On that occasion, it lasted for months. We cannot have a scenario where they do not offer some kind of cohesion to the 650 people and the many thousands depending on an income. They said in their briefing document this morning that the decision was communicated as soon as possible. People were hearing about it over the airwaves last night. They had no communication. They talk about being in continuous dialogue. They were not in dialogue to begin with. Saying that they were acutely aware of a deep regret is not worth the paper it is written on this morning. There is a long-term future for this mine. A rich body of ore has been discovered in what is called Tara Deep. This is going to be profitable mine for 50 years to come for the town of Navan. However, in the here and now, the company has a duty of care to its employees and I am asking the Government to press it on the matter. It cannot leave this as an open-ended book with no date on when production is going to start again in the mine.