Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he has initiated or will initiate to protect the jobs at a company (details supplied) and to ensure the continuation and growth of the manufacturing industry here. [21696/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware that the company in question is undertaking a major restructuring and upgrading of its plant in Naas, County Kildare. Employment will reduce from 480 to 235 following the restructuring. However, I understand that the company has chosen Ireland as the international manufacturing site for its next generation electronic mirrors and that this will involve substantial new capital investment at its plant in Naas. This is expected to ensure the long-term viability of the plant.

The 245 redundancies that the company has deemed necessary, are expected to be achieved through a voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme. Notwithstanding this, the manager of the FÁS training services unit in the midlands region has visited the company and provided briefing on the full range of services available from FÁS. The company has indicated that it will be in contact with the agency again before the end of this month.

As Minister for Enterprise, my objective is to ensure that our economy remains a globally competitive, profitable and secure location for business. We can best help enterprise, including the manufacturing sector, by continuing to implement policies that are pro-business and by implementing the right balance of enterprise supports and at the right time to help business. When provided with the best supporting and competitive environment, business and industry will develop to capitalise on investment and growth opportunities. It is the Government's intention to enable enterprise growth by policies tailored to address the competitive pressures transforming the global economy.

Manufacturing has been a key driver of prosperity across the economy for many years and enterprise policies will continue to emphasise the strategic importance of the sector to future economic growth. The enterprise strategy group, ESG, recognised the importance of the sector in providing a foundation of skills and technologies on which to build a high performance, high value added and technologically orientated manufacturing sector into the future. We must realise, however, that global competition from fast developing economies is placing unprecedented competitive pressures on manufacturing plants, and particularly those involved in low margin activities. Some firms will be unable to compete in these new competitive circumstances.

Nevertheless, the success of many world class plants gives us some solid cause for optimism that our manufacturing base will continue to operate at the leading edge of technologies and processes, while sustaining significant employment. From a policy perspective it is important to put in place selective initiatives to maximise this potential. Both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have specific programmes to assist their manufacturing clients tackle competitiveness problems.

I am satisfied that the strategies and policies being pursued by the Government and by the State development agencies under the aegis of my Department will continue to maximise sustainable job creation and investment opportunities. The capacity of our economy to consistently expand quality employment opportunities, not only for our own labour force but for thousands of immigrants, strongly suggests that we have significant competitive strengths in the global context.