asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will elaborate on the statement made by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach at a dinner of the South East Clare Fianna Fáil Cumann at Shannon Airport on 4th April 1970 that within the next two weeks the Minister for Industry and Commerce will announce the setting up of one of the biggest factories in the country for Limerick and that one of the largest grants ever made in the country would be given for this factory.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - County Limerick Factory.
22.
Negotiations for the establishment of a large new industry in Limerick are in progress but have not been completely finalised and I am not yet in a position to make an announcement about the project.
May I ask the Minister if the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach is privy to particular information? The local Fianna Fáil cumann in south-east Clare seem to have had that information transmitted to them while this House was not aware of the details of that information.
The House will appreciate that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach is a very active Deputy in connection with his own constituency and, in that capacity, was considerably involved with the particular project and knows much about it.
If the Parliamentary Secretary is involved in the development of a project in that area—which I am quite sure this House would welcome—and if he decides to disclose the details to a political meeting at Shannon Airport, surely this House is entitled to more information than the sparse, outline comment the Minister has made this afternoon. The Parliamentary Secretary even gave the employment catchment area and gave the particular impact on industrial development locally.
Such information as the Parliamentary Secretary gave was available to him in his capacity as a Deputy who had been involved, as a Deputy, in negotiations in connection with the project. However, any announcement I might make would be in my capacity as Minister for Industry and Commerce and, as I have explained, I am not in a position to make such an announcement at present.
Are we then to assume that local Fianna Fáil personnel have full details, the name, location, development and so on, of this undertaking while the other Members of this House are not privy to this information?
I do not know what the Deputy means by local Fianna Fáil personnel. I referred only to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach. I do not think the Parliamentary Secretary gave the name of the company and there were a number of other details he did not disclose. The information he gave was available to him because of his activity as a Deputy in that constituency.
The Parliamentary Secretary was very loquacious at Shannon Airport.
I should like to tell the Minister that our main concern in Limerick is that this industry will be established. Can the Minister confirm that there is every likelihood that this industry will get under way fairly soon?
To the best of my knowledge it certainly will.