Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 24 Nov 1998

Vol. 497 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Factory Closures.

Ms Cooper-Flynn

This matter is of grave concern to public representatives and the people of County Mayo. Last Friday notice of closure was given to 36 employees of the Betatherm factory in the town of Ballinrobe, 34 women and two men. They work a two and a three day week and will finish their employment the week before Christmas. The factory will close on 31 December.

Betatherm was established in County Galway in 1987 and set up its factory in 1994 in Ballinrobe in an advance factory. It was greeted in the community as great news at the time because it was difficult to attract industry into the area and it had a significant impact in the local community. Betatherm is a manufacturer of temperature control thermostats for the automotive business. The reasons given for the closure are lost contracts, problems in the UK, the financial crisis in Asia and marketing problems which the company has experienced in the US. I understand either factories or jobs have been lost in the company's factories in the US in Barbados and Florida.

I visited this factory some years ago when it was in full flight but not during the past weekend when there were photographers around and great publicity was being given to some members of the Opposition. The workforce was very loyal and there was good morale in the company. It will be a great loss to the town of Ballinrobe. For some extraordinary reason, Ballinrobe has not attracted jobs for many years. Up to 1994 there were few industrial jobs in the town. I find this hard to understand given that it is close to Galway. There is plenty of room for development in Ballinrobe both industrial and residential.

The company has informed its employees it will assist them in every way possible to find new employment. I would like details of how exactly it plans to assist its employees.

I thank the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, with whom I spoke on Friday, for getting in touch with IDA Ireland so swiftly and asking it to redouble its efforts in finding replacement employment for County Mayo. Redoubling its efforts is not enough. We need to set up a taskforce immediately. On an absolute scale, the loss of 36 jobs may not seem large to constituencies where there have been hundreds of job announcements recently. To the town of Ballinrobe it is very significant. I want the town of Ballinrobe prioritised by the Tánaiste and IDA Ireland as a location for the next new factory that comes to this country.

Scarcely has a week has gone by, since we assumed office, where there has not been some new job announcement somewhere throughout the country. I want the next one to be in Ballinrobe. The Tánaiste has proved to be successful in this area previously. In my second day here, the announcement of the closure of Asahi resulted in action by the Tánaiste when she prioritised north Mayo and particularly the town of Ballina for a new factory. We have managed to attract one of the top 20 countries in the world, Coca Cola, into Ballina. I ask the Tánaiste to put the same effort into doing something for Ballinrobe. While the loss of 250 jobs in Asahi was a crisis in north Mayo, the loss of 36 jobs in Ballinrobe is also a crisis.

I ask the Tánaiste to set up a meeting immediately between herself, IDA Ireland, the Ballinrobe Traders' Association and the staff of Betatherm to show them and the people of Ballinrobe she is serious in her efforts to do something. We cannot argue that the jobs are not there. During the past two years while we have been in Government, 100,000 new jobs have been created. All I am asking is that the 36 employees of Betatherm in Ballinrobe have an opportunity to have their jobs replaced at a time when our economy is booming.

Mr. Kenny

During my term as Minister for Tourism and Trade I dealt with a number of similar instances. Given Ireland's island location, our population structure and our ability to manufacture high-tech components, exports are important.

I regret the way the closure of Betatherm in Ballinrobe was handled. The company should have been more open with its employees when the difficulty became apparent and the company had to go on a three day week. I sympathise with the workforce and understand their frustration and disappointment in the run-up to the Christmas festivities but sympathy is of little use to the workforce. There is no sympathy in the world of business economics and trading manufacturing components.

This company has decided to close. I am not sure it could have continued given that there was a buy-out, that the manufacturing took place in Barbados, testing took place in Ballinrobe and the product was exported to the Continent. While I sympathise with the workers, I hope out of this disappointment we can create a new beginning. I support the concept of setting up a Government-backed task force to deal with this given that a number of them have proved successful in the past.

Betatherm is gone and will not return. The company has assured me, following my visit on Monday, it will do whatever is necessary in the context of drawing up a redundancy package for the workers. I hope the redundancy payments will be reasonable and that the workers receive the full amount. Ireland is no longer a low labour cost country. Labour costs in Barbados and in South-East Asia are one-third and one-eleventh, respectively, of what they are here. We face problems on a number of fronts. Betatherm is not the first electronics company to face this problem and it will not be the last.

We are very successful in the software industry and in the areas of high level engineering, multilingual skills and so on. This workforce which is efficient and reliable has the capacity to be retrained. There will be an opportunity to expand that workforce, given a range of opportunities leading to longer term employment and a high rate of payment.

From speaking with IDA Ireland today, I am aware that already companies are interested in this plant and I hold out great hope in that context. One of the best examples of commitment to Ballinrobe is by the McHale engineering plant on the other side of the town which is constructing a 100,000 square foot unit. This is a locally based indigenous engineering firm, which has a long-term commitment to its 100 employees, involved in heavy machinery and exporting to 27 countries.

Ballinrobe has had £40 million expended on it in the past ten years in water, sewage, telecommunications, roads, public lighting, fire brigade services and so on. Some 30 miles from Galway, it is an attractive location for longer term industry and long-term development.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, not just to read the prepared script from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment but to give his consent to setting up a task force. I advise the Minister to appoint Mr. Des Mahon, the county manager, as chairman. He was very successful in the post-Asahi task force. Its membership should comprise Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the south Mayo Leader group, FÁS, local employment groups, Forbairt, Teagasc, the Lakeland Development Agency, local industry and local traders. I would go so far as to suggest the inclusion of local councillors Burke, Mangan and Heneghan on that task force. If we all work in the interests of Ballinrobe and the greater region, the opportunity will present itself to create a new future for these workers and for the Ballinrobe region. I ask the Minister of State and the Tánaiste to consent to setting up this task force and to ensure it reports before the end of January.

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. T. Kitt)

I thank the Deputies for raising this matter on the Adjournment. As someone from the west I share fully the Deputies' disappointment over the recent decision by Betatherm to close its Ballinrobe plant. I am very conscious of the effect which the closure of this plant will have on Ballinrobe and more immediately on the employees concerned.

Betatherm Corporation, a private company, was established in the United States in 1983 and since then, in addition to its US operation, it has set up plants in the Caribbean and Ireland. Its manufacturing operations are engaged in the production of thermistors, which are electrical components used for temperature sensing in a wide range of industries such as the medical, industrial, consumer goods, automotive and computer areas. As the Deputies have stated, Betatherm Ireland Limited was established in Galway in 1987 to manufacture thermistors for the medical, consumer and industrial markets in Europe.

In 1994, a second manufacturing operation was established in an IDA advance factory at Ballinrobe, County Mayo, to manufacture thermistors for the automotive industry. However, the current financial crisis in Asia has seen a flood of product on to the market at knock-down prices and there has also been a 30 per cent dip in world markets, which has been acknowledged by both Deputies in their contributions.

Against the deteriorating market situation, the Ballinrobe plant was put on week by week notice and on Friday 20 November staff were informed that the facility would be closed, resulting in the loss of 37 jobs. The Ballinrobe operation, which has primarily carried out test work, will now be switched to automatic testing and housed in the company's Galway plant. While it may be of little consolation to the Ballinrobe workers, I am told that Betatherm Ireland is confident for the future of its Galway operation.

The House will realise that while the support agencies play an important role in helping industry to develop and expand, much depends on the external trading environment, which Deputy Kenny would understand from his time as Minister, and the competitive intensity of the market segment in which a company positions itself. I am particularly conscious of the impact, both economically and socially, of the job losses at Betatherm. The development agencies are working closely with industry and local interests to promote industrial development in the Mayo area through the attraction of new industry and the expansion of existing industry.

On a more positive note for the area, earlier this year the Tánaiste announced that 200 new jobs are to be created at Volex Limited in Castlebar in an expansion to establish the Castlebar facility as the centre of excellence within the Volex Group for cable assemblies for the data communications and telecommunications markets in Europe. This year also, Allergan Pharmaceuticals, as part of the company's expansion programme, has actively recruited for its eye care products a manufacturing facility at Westport.

In light of the closure of Betatherm's operation in Ballinrobe, I have asked the agencies to intensify their efforts to facilitate additional investment, job creation and job maintenance in the region. In addition, FÁS will do everything possible to assist redundant workers through initiatives such as training and retraining. Given the co-ordinated efforts by the agencies on the ground, I consider that the setting up of a task force is not necessary in this case. I appreciate the case made by the Deputies. Task forces have been established in other parts of the country where problems like these have arisen. I assure the Deputies that rejection of the idea of a task force does not mean that every effort will not be made. The Tánaiste and I will closely monitor the efforts of the agencies involved in this matter.