Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 283: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if, in view of the decline of the clothing and textile sector in Donegal his Department or the State agencies have or had a strategy to attract or promote the development of a particular sector to create alternative employment for the workers affected by job losses in the textile and clothing sector. [39087/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Over the past five years, IDA Ireland has actively encouraged new investment in Donegal in knowledge-based industries. This is part of a focussed strategy to replace the traditional clothing and textile industries that have been declining in the north west in recent years.

As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, my objective is to ensure that Donegal remains a globally competitive, profitable and secure location for business in general. I believe we can best help enterprises in Donegal by continuing to implement policies that are pro-business and by implementing the right balance of enterprise supports at the right time. When provided with the best supporting and competitive environment, business and industry will develop to capitalise on investment and growth opportunities. Developing a competitive economy, resilient to the toughest competitive pressures, is the optimal approach to sustainable employment growth in County Donegal. Indeed, there have been significant job announcements for County Donegal this year, with more than 600 new jobs to come in companies supported by the development agencies.

Retraining of workers previously employed in traditional sectors such as clothing and textiles is an important element in the strategy to address the relatively difficult employment situation in Donegal. FÁS will continue to play an active and positive role in providing support to workers who have lost their jobs and require retraining to take up jobs in different sectors. Services offered by FÁS to workers losing their jobs and requiring retraining include the following elements. There will be liaison with senior management in the company affected, with regard to how the process will be conducted. Information sessions for all affected workers will be provided if required. The aim of these sessions is to outline the range of support and services available from FÁS and other public bodies. FÁS Employment Services staff conduct full registration interviews with all workers. These interviews help assess suitable career progression options for each redundant worker and identify their training and development needs. FÁS prepares a skills analysis report detailing a composite of the skills of the workforce. This is available to the development organisations such as the IDA and Enterprise Ireland on request.

A skills and training aspiration list is also compiled to inform FÁS of the required retraining and upskilling needs of the redundant workers. This training is delivered by various means including existing scheduled training programmes delivered by our three training centres within the region at Letterkenny, Gweedore and Sligo, or in the case of a specialist training requirement, at any FÁS centre throughout the country. Contracted training and community based training can also be availed of. In the past, FÁS increased dramatically its range of contracted training courses to meet the retraining needs of redundant workers.

Special training needs not catered for by the existing FÁS suite of programmes can be facilitated through its customised training fund, evening or weekend courses as well as e-learning options. The provision of information, career guidance and advice is an ongoing element of the service to redundant workers. Redundant workers are given initial and ongoing information and support to keep them in touch with the labour market. They are advised of the FÁS Jobs Ireland database, which allows job seekers to register their CVs and source jobs via the Internet. They are also informed of the FÁS call centre, which provides a job matching facility for job seekers and they are provided with information on the cross-Border and Eures websites.

Redundant workers who do not succeed through the above interventions will be referred to FÁS once again via the national employment action plan strategy, on reaching the six month unemployment threshold. They will then be assigned a FÁS officer and become a caseload client. They will be interacted with on a regular basis to assist their re-entry to the workforce. While most workers being made redundant would have availed of at least some of the services above, approximately 1,000 workers in Donegal availed of full retraining over the last ten years.

The Deputy will be aware that there have been significant job announcements in Donegal recently, with over 210 new jobs announced by Zeus Industrial Products, Letterkenny and PowerBoard, Burnfoot. These projects are being supported by the Industrial Development Agency and Enterprise Ireland, respectively. This was in addition to 423 jobs I announced earlier this year for the north-west region. I can assure the Deputy that the State development agencies under my auspices, namely the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, FÁS and the Donegal County Enterprise Board, are fully committed to supporting and promoting job creation and job retention in Donegal. In addition to recent job announcements, this commitment is also demonstrated by ongoing development and support by the agencies for a number of business parks and enterprise centres in Donegal. These include the completion of the IDA Letterkenny business park, the provision of a 25,000 sq. ft. advance office building at Windyhall, the completion of site development work at Ballyshannon for a new facility and also a development at Buncrana, where the IDA is working with a local developer to provide new manufacturing and office buildings. In addition to providing support for nine community enterprise centres in Donegal, Enterprise Ireland has also provided substantial support for the expansion of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology's business development centre and the development of a marine biotechnology centre.

However, I also recognise that there have been significant job losses in Donegal in recent years as it makes the transition from traditional to knowledge-based employment sectors. This is why I have visited Donegal twice since becoming Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I have met many groups and companies on these visits to discuss both the county's difficulties and positive developments. My colleagues in Government also recognise the particular difficulties in Donegal and we will be working together to increase the attractiveness of the county as a location for enterprises.