I am extremely grateful to you, Sir, for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I am aware of the pressure that you are under from many Members wishing to raise matters in this way. I am grateful, too, to the Minister of State, Deputy Denis Gallagher, for attending at 11.30 p.m. to discuss this matter.
The closure of the Babygro plant in Belmullet, County Mayo, is a matter of serious concern and must be given absolute priority by the Government agencies. Geographically, the Erris region is as big as County Louth. It is difficult to service this vast area with industry, whether indigenous or industry introduced to the area by Government agencies. Erris is covered by both the IDA and Údarás na Gaeltachta, as part of it is a Gaeltacht area and comes under the Gaeltacht Authority as does this plant and Belmullet town.
I raise the matter in this political forum not alone because of the representations made to me by a great number of people and my concern for them as a public representative but also to help both the Minister of State and his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, in putting the other points of view and to assist them in their dealings with the various Government agencies. I would like to quote from an editorial in the Western People on October 12 entitled, “Bleeding Erris”.
It is an intolerable loss to a region which has suffered irreparable damage over the years because little has been done to create industry to keep people at home.
Now whole families are emigrating, closing up their homes as their predecessors did in another era. Football teams are being decimated, villages denuded, the region robbed of its youth and its vitality.
Bishop Thomas Finnegan, in his diocesan homily in Knock last week, pointed out that the equivalent of two large parishes have emigrated in recent times from the Killala Diocese: it is a horrifying statistic but one all too readily recognised by the people of Erris whose lot it appears, is the emigration trail.
In the light of this most recent closure, and against a background of deprivation over the decades, we call on the Government to put all its resources behind the acquisition of alternative industry. It should recognise the agony of Erris, the haemorrhaging of its very heart, and declare it as an area of the highest priority for the provision of jobs on a scale commensurate with the problem.
If it doesn't then, as local politicians have warned, it will become an area only for the very young and the old, and eventually only for the old. The proud people of Erris deserve a fate better than that. All voices, therefore, must be united in the call for immediate action.
In an objective sense, that article sets out the picture as we find it today in the Barony of Erris. I know the Minister of State here tonight understands deeply the consequences of such emigration, coming from the Achill area, which also has been ravaged by emigration over the years. The consequences are enormous for the people of the region.
The workers at the Babygro plant at present are on a short term extended contract. This area has had very little investment in industrial development since 1982 either under the previous Government or the present Government. The Babygro plant is not a new industry but resulted from a move from the Children's World factory seven miles from Belmullet to a new and better plant. The factory was opened in July 1987 by the Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey, amid great jubilation and hope for the future. I ask the Minister of State in his capacity as Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach what future the plant has and what is the position in regard to acquiring an alternative industry.
It might be proper to say that the State agency, Údarás na Gaeltachta, dealing with this particular case had a list of intolerable demands made on them by the Scottish company who bought over the Babygro plant. Indeed, the list of conditions is such that it could not be met by any State agency and this has placed great pressure on the authority to acquire an alternative industry for the area. Would the Minister of State be able to say what has happened with regard to the assistance being given to Údarás na Gaeltachta to acquire an alternative industry for the Babygro plant? If an alternative is secured, will finance be available by way of Údarás grants to set it up and run it? The Minister of State is quite well aware that if and when this contract ends, up to 120 skilled textile workers will be without employment. Many of these people returned from England and abroad in the seventies. They acquired local authority loans and set up their homes and are now in the process of rearing their families at home. It is intolerable that an area like this should be further crushed beneath the weight of unemployment and emigration.
I ask specifically that the Minister of State direct that Údarás na Gaeltachta would set up a specific task force which would recognise the absolute priority of the provision of industrial employment in Erris and that would also secure an alternative industry in this case. I think that consideration could be given to the provision of a separate budget in this area. It appears to me that the extent of the growth in fish farming over the past number of years is eating away a substantial amount of money from the Údarás na Gaeltachta budget. While fish farming is a source of economic activity, we must not lose sight of industrial expansion. I would like the Minister to outline the authority Údarás na Gaeltachta have to deliver at this time. I understand that after a meeting in October some controversy arose from a letter sent to the Údarás and that up to 30 projects with possible potential for over 300 jobs have not been sanctioned either because gurus in the Department of Finance have issued instructions that no further finance be made available to Údarás na Gaeltachta or because other resources in other ways are not being made available to them. This is intolerable and should not be allowed to continue.
Calls have been made at public meetings that the Taoiseach should intervene. Intervention by Deputy Haughey as Taoiseach will not in itself solve the problem but it would be appropriate that he lend his not inconsiderable weight in the matter and express his concern to Údarás na Gaeltachta and give them other resources to go about meeting the requirements of the people dealing with this, bodies who have expressed an interest in acquisition of the plant in order that the matter be sorted out. This area is not serviced properly by Údarás officials. Only one official of Údarás na Gaeltachta services there once a fortnight or thereabouts, and that is not keeping with such an area that is made up of Gaeltacht areas, as it were. We do not give a proportionate level of grant assistance in terms of resources to the people of the area. Something should be done in this regard as well. If a new project has to be put in — and this is what has to be done — will the finance be made available by the Údarás to set it up and run it?
Let me say that both the Minister of State here tonight and his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, have expressed their personal interest in this matter. Nobody wants to see anybody losing a job particularly in an area like this, but people in the area are beginning to wonder where is the commitment of the Government to saving the jobs and delivering the alternatives which must be delivered as this is the last remaining plant giving any significant employment in the area. We have two Government Ministers, one at the Cabinet table, one in the Department of the Gaeltacht and I will offer them every assistance I can as a public representative. I am sure nobody wants to see a small workforce, many of them with young families, having to go into this Christmas with prospects of unemployment staring them in the face in 1989, and I urge the Minister of State to use his authority, together with that of the Taoiseach, and allow Údarás na Gaeltachta and their officials to use every possible resource, not alone in declaring the area to be a priority for employment but in considering those who have expressed an interest in acquiring this plant. As the Bishop has said, we do not want this area, as big as County Louth, to become a home only for geriatrics, a place robbed of heart, vitality and soul. All the public representatives, regardless of which side of the House they are on, shares that concern. I urge the Minister of State in his capacity as representative of the Taoiseach to see to it that authority and resources are given to Údarás na Gaeltachta to deliver on this matter.
