asked the Minister for Industry and Energy in view of the Talbot redundancies, the terms of agreement entered into by Talbot with his Department for 90 redundancies and retention of 32 workers in February 1981, or at any time.
Written Answers. - Talbot Redundancies.
522.
I presume that the Deputy is referring to the redundancies among its assembly workers proposed by Talbot Ireland Limited in February 1981, when that company ceased car assembly. Neither the number of such redundancies, nor the terms offered to the workers concerned, required or involved the agreement of the then Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
The proposals put by the company to the Minister at that time related, not to redundancies, but to the deployment on other duties of part of the company's assembly work force and to other measures which, taken together, constituted the company's case for the grant of facilities for the continued importation of fully built up motor vehicles.
In considering the grant of very restricted facilities to import f.b.u. vehicles the overriding consideration of the Minister was the preservation, to the fullest extent possible, of employment both in the company and in its dealer network throughout the country.