I wish to share my time with Deputy Healy.
Adjournment Debate. - Job Losses.
Acting Chairman
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this very important matter on the Adjournment. Tipperary town, as the Minister, Deputy Cullen, knows extremely well, has suffered hugely in recent years.
To put it in context in the brief time available to me, it is a place that, because of its traditional dependence on the whole agricultural scene was once a great market town. It has been more badly affected than any other town by the changes in agriculture. When the Government recently carried out investigations while preparing a proposal under the RAPID scheme for various towns around the country, it transpired that Tipperary town was actually the second poorest town in the country.
Recently, the town suffered another huge body blow when Pall Netherlands BV, which had been developing in the town over the past six years, decided to lay off 150 workers. To say it was a devastating blow is an understatement. There was shock that evening when people realised what was happening to a town that was already on its knees. The Minister and everybody else knows that what we need now is action. There are two options open to us. The town can be allowed to die or we can do something about it. I would always want to be positive and we need to do something about it.
There is a total lack of understanding by the Government of the neglect of the town and the position it has been left in. The IDA has been thinking and talking but no action has taken place in relation to an industrial park. The land is there but no developments have occurred. We have spoken about it but it has not happened. There is a huge empty facility in the town already that has been left idle for the past six or seven years. Recently, the IDA told a joint meeting of local Oireachtas Members and the UDC that an investor has not even been taken to see that plant over the past number of years. All in all, the situation in Tipperary town is devastating to say the least and I am looking forward to hearing of some positive action from the Minister.
The Minister is not too far away from Tipperary town and knows it well. The people of Tipperary town are at a loss as to why their town has been neglected. Right across the country, jobs were announced throughout the Celtic tiger era but there was nothing for Tipperary town. I ask that it be made a priority by the Government over the next number of months and that we all pull together because we all want the town to succeed.
I thank Deputy Hayes for sharing time and I support his comments. Currently, the accepted unemployment levels in Tipperary town stand at 12%, about three times the national average. The 150 redundancies announced recently are in the biggest factory in the town and it is an absolutely devastating blow not just to Tipperary town but to the whole hinterland, right out as far as Cashel and back into parts of east Limerick.
I hope the Minister will be able to tell us tonight that he will set up a task force to take account of the difficulties that Tipperary town is experiencing and to ensure that investment and industry goes into the town. Tipperary town has been a very progressive town. Huge amounts of money have been collected on a voluntary basis to provide facilities that are second to none, such as the Canon Hayes sports complex, an IT training facility, the Sean Treacy swimming pool and the XL cinema. In excess of €1.5 million from the pockets of townspeople themselves have been put into these projects so it is a town that is very progressive and that needs and deserves employment. I hope the Minister will be able to announce a task force for the town of Tipperary.
I am taking this matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I thank Deputy Hayes in particular for raising this matter on the Adjournment. I learned with grave disappointment of the decision by Pall Netherlands BV to close part of its manufacturing operations in Tipperary with the loss of 155 jobs. I understand that the parent company has made a decision to transfer the production of medical filters to Puerto Rico but to continue the production of industrial filters in Tipperary. The company currently employs a total of 230 people in the manufacture of medical and industrial filters in Tipperary town.
The decision to cease the manufacture of the medical filters results from over-capacity in the marketplace. The manufacture of medical filters will transfer to Puerto Rico, where Pall Corporation has an existing facility which is three times the size of the Irish plant. FÁS, the national training authority, has already been in contact with company representatives to discuss a detailed programme to assist those who are being made redundant to find suitable alternative employment. FÁS has offered to make available its full range of support services including skills analysis, jobs placement, guidance and counselling interviews, identification of training needs and suitable training courses. FÁS will also ensure ongoing support and action to keep redundant workers in touch with the labour market.
In addition, Enterprise Ireland's south-east region office, in association with the management of the Tipperary Enterprise and Technology Centre and Tipperary South Riding County Enterprise Board, has already held a clinic for the staff of Pall who wish to consider self-employment. The resources of all three bodies will be used, as appropriate, to give assistance to those employees who wish to set up their own enterprise.
In regard to positive developments in South Tipperary, I understand that the ALZA Corporation Cashel, is currently in the process of expanding which will grow employment to 100. South Tipperary has a good range of foreign direct investment companies in the growing pharmaceutical and health care sectors. Companies such as Guidant, Merck Sharp and Dohme and Clonmel Healthcare in Clonmel and now ALZA Corporation in Cashel provide a solid base of employment. These are complemented by another significant employer, SRAM Ireland in Carrick-on-Suir.
IDA Ireland will continue to promote Tipperary to potential investors and the agency will also develop its business park in Tipperary town as an additional attraction. Planning permission has recently been secured to carry out an upgrade of the park by improving the entrance road and landscaping the site. An advance technology building of 16,000 square feet will be built on the park this year. In addition, the former Namco building of 60,000 square feet is available and is being actively marketed by the agency.
The IDA will work with existing clients in the county to encourage further new expansion activities. In the case of Pall, the company has indicated that it is willing to be flexible in relation to future use of its building and, in that respect, the IDA has already commenced to market the facility. I also understand that the Tipperary Enterprise and Technology Centre is now fully operational and that nine micro enterprises have set up there to date. It is hoped that a number of new enterprises will commence in the centre in the near future.
In terms of increasing Tipperary's attractiveness as a location for investment, the Tipperary Institute is currently operating two campuses, one in Clonmel and the other in Thurles, and it is hoped to develop the range of courses to take on more business and science students. The State development agencies under the aegis of my Department are fully committed to the promotion of employment creation in south Tipperary, including Tipperary town. The agencies work closely with each other and with the development bodies in the area, as well as other local bodies and interests in facilitating an integrated approach to enterprise development in south Tipperary. In that respect, a sub-committee of the Tipperary County Development Board has been set up, in which the IDA, FÁS and Enterprise Ireland will participate to examine what initiatives can be developed for Tipperary town and ways of attracting potential foreign direct investment.