Vol. 395 No. 9
Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce, in view of the appointment this morning of a receiver to the computer firm of Memory Ltd., and the consequent threat to the jobs of the 80 people employed by the firm, the steps, if any, he intends to take to prevent the loss of these jobs; if he intends to seek a meeting with the receiver; if he intends to request the IDA to take any action; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Receivership is provided for in Irish law and I have no role in relation to the placing of companies in receivership. The management of the affairs of a company in receivership is the responsibility of the receiver in accordance with his statutory and other legal duties. The IDA's dealings, as appropriate with the receiver, are a day-to-day responsibility of that body and not one for which I am responsible.
Washing your hands of the 80 workers.
Notwithstanding the content of the Minister's reply, does he not agree that it is a cause for alarm that following the Sunbeam, Nixdorf, Mahon and MacPhilips and now Memory, threatened job losses are continuing to outstrip the progress being made in job creation?
The Deputy raised a specific matter. Let us have no deviation.
Unfortunately there are job losses from time to time but they certainly do not outstrip job creation, which is very well ahead of the numbers of job losses. This company have been known publicly through the newspapers to have been in severe trouble for the past three years at least. The IDA have sought to give them every assistance. It is impossible to guarantee the viability of every individual company. Naturally I regret very much that a number approaching 80 people possibly stand to lose their employment. It is a matter for the receiver to seek to dispose of the company and I hope he will be successful in doing so. He will certainly have every assistance from me in this regard.
Although this question deals with a specific matter, is the Minister not concerned about the long list of threatened closures since the beginning of the year? Sunbeam Wolsey is one which Deputy Rabbitte did not mention. Is there a common strand in this?
I allowed a question in respect of a particular industry, Memory Limited — nothing else.
In each of these cases where the company has been put into receivership, the receiver is trading. To describe them as closures and write off the companies in the past tense——
Threatened closures.
——is not just inaccurate but is unfair to the companies, to the receivers and in particular to the employees concerned, because in these cases I would hope that the great bulk of the jobs would be retained as a result of a sale of the undertakings by the receivers.
