Deputy Lenihan has nine minutes and the Minister has five.
Adjournment Debate. - Clondalkin (Dublin) Paper Mills.
Deputy Lemass wishes to take three minutes of my time. I do not intend to go into the merits of this matter because they were fully debated here on 10, 15 and 16 November last. The need to open this mill from the point of view of providing employment and in the national interest is already on the record. Despite the fact that they spent £1.75 million purchasing the premises last February 12 months, the Government did nothing about this matter until we raised the issue last November. We had the farcical situation where the Minister, Deputy Bruton, made it clear that he had no intention of opening the mill and delivered a cautionary address to the House in which he adopted a Victorian attitude. He said on 15 November that he did not believe that anyone should try to press the Government into making arrangements that are not in the best possible interests of the economic development of the industry concerned.
The following day we had the spectacle of a junior Minister, Deputy E. Collins, after much mumbling and fumbling saying that he was able to produce a new project out of his hip pocket. Within 24 hours of the Minister rejecting the idea of any such project being feasible, we had the junior Minister saying, at column 2647 of the Official Report on 16 November:
The IDA have been in negotiation with a company in Canada for some time now and I am pleased to be able to tell the House, especially the Members opposite, that, following a decision made by the IDA board last week on the basis of a revised proposal for the mills, the IDA have reached an agreement in principle with the FMI company of Canada.
These are the facts. That happened four months ago. What I am concerned about is the credibility of this Government in making commitments and giving guarantees to this House ranging across the whole field of public administration and Government policy. We had it in the security area, now we have it in the economic and industrial area.
The junior Minister, Deputy Collins, gave a commitment to this House but the Minister, Deputy Bruton, the previous night rejected any idea that a viable economic or industrial proposition was on for Clondalkin. The House was misled on the evening of 16 November and as a result men and women of the Clondalkin community who crowded the public gallery went home thinking something would happen immediately because of what Deputy Collins said. Deputy Collins gave that commitment because earlier that day the Labour Party members in the Government had decided that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, had gone too far the night before. There was an ideological conflict within the Government and they decided on this most blatant con trick and had the junior Minister, Deputy Collins, mumble and fumble for a while before he announced that a specific arrangement had been made between the IDA and the FMI company of Canada.
That is a fairy tale. Those discussions have been going on for a long time.
On behalf of the people concerned and the country as a whole, I want to ascertain the progress that has been made in the four months since. My information is that a few people have been cleaning the floors, building a wall, putting up the odd brick and painting the odd shed but that not one single piece of productive apparatus has been introduced to the building during the past four months and that no effort has been made to make arrangements to commence production. I want to hear what arrangement has been made to initiate production and the proposed plans and projections. What arrangements have been made with the FMI company in Canada or, if that deal is dead, with any other company? I want a progress report on what the Government have done in the past four months, what they propose to do in the immediate future and their ultimate plans for this project.
The record shows that this has been a massive exercise in the painting of cosmetic colours designed to con the people at large. Once again we have an example of the national handlers who sought to patch the matter together following the statement by the Minister that it was not on. They cobbled something together and the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, came in the following night to say these arrangements were in train.
That is a figment of the Deputy's imagination.
As a result decent men called off their industrial protest, and they are living in hope within that community.
A total con job was perpetrated against the workers of Clondalkin Paper Mills. When will the first piece of paper come out of that mill? We are importing hundreds of tonnes of paper. When are the Clondalkin workers to be allowed once again to produce paper? I have a question down to the Minister, but it takes so long to get questions answered that perhaps he would like to answer it tonight. Why is a wall being built there at a cost of £35,000? Is it a fact that the building of this wall will inhibit the opening of the mills as a paper manufacturing concern? The Minister should be honest with us and tell us exactly what is happening. He is trying to get a few answers now before it is his turn to speak.
Not to the Deputy's questions.
But the Deputy wants questions answered, as do Deputy Lenihan and the workers in Clondalkin. The Minister should come clean and tell us when this mill will open. The longer the delay the fewer skilled people will be available. People have been waiting two-and-a-half years to go back to their jobs. For goodness sake, let them go back and produce the paper we need.
I hope that what the Minister will say will give confidence to those of us who have worked over many years to get paper-making re-established in Clondalkin mills. The Minister recently made an announcement regarding paper conversion, and I would hope that the paper conversion operation would be only a prelude to paper-making, because paper-making and Clondalkin are synonymous. Clondalkin is an unemployment blackspot, and the restoration of paper-making in the mills would be a healthy first step to restoring confidence in Clondalkin generally.
While Minister for Industry and Energy I concerned myself with the difficulties at Clondalkin mills. It is only fair to say that the difficulties there had manifested themselves some time earlier than the period of the 1981-1982 Government. The difficulties were signalled many months before the arrival of that Government. The scheme worked out when I was Minister for Industry and Energy involved one-third State investment, one-third private investment and the remainder from the employees. That would have given an employment potential of 300 people in the mills. No scheme proposed to date by the Minister or anybody else has given close to that figure of employment. While paper conversion would be a first stage in restoring morale in the mill I would hope it would not be long before a full paper-making operation would be restored and that we would approach an employment figure of 300 personnel, the figure in the scheme I proposed.
When?
The House will recall that an agreement was concluded in November 1983 after many months of intensive negotiations with FMI whereby the IDA approved facilities for a paper conversion project in Clondalkin. For this purpose I agreed to lease an appropriate area of the mill to the company. In addition the Government agreed to make available to the company an option on the remainder of the mill's assets not immediately required for paper conversion. It is the company's intention to progress to use these for paper-making, and the Government will make assets available to them on the approval by the IDA of a viable project for paper-making.
The agreement with FMI in regard to paper conversion which is the initial part of the proposal was conditional — and was stated to be such when I announced it in the debate — on the acceptance of the trade unions concerned. Discussions with the trade unions commenced in January and they are now at a very advanced stage. I expect they will be completed within the next few days. The conclusion of negotiations with the trade unions concerned will pave the way for the start of paper conversion operations. It will be a matter for the investors, FMI, to determine the precise date on which these operations will commence. Assuming that the remaining negotiations with the trade unions are completed as quickly as expected, I imagine the commencement of paper conversion will be in a few weeks' time.
How many will be employed?
That has already been announced, as the Deputy is aware. To enable the paper conversion operation to succeed a considerable amount of renovation has already taken place. A figure in the region of £15,000 has been spent since November on the renovation of the premises.
What is the wall for?
A fire resistant wooden partition is being erected on one side of the area of the mill being leased to the promoters. It is a temporary measure regarded as necessary for operational control. It did not cost £35,000 as Deputy Lemass stated but rather about £4,500. The figure spent generally on renovation is £15,000 of which about £4,000 is in respect of this wall.
I am quite confident that as a result of the successful conclusion of negotiations with the trade unions, the only remaining matter preventing the commencement of the paper conversion operation, the venture will commence very shortly. If it is successful and provides the basis for a viable paper-making project, as determined by the IDA, then paper-making will also commence. Viability throughout this entire effort has been my concern, because I do not want to see people's money and hopes invested in something that is not viable.
The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 15 March 1984.