Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Nov 1998

Vol. 497 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Factory Closures.

Mr. Flanagan:

I am grateful to you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me the opportunity to raise this important matter. It is important to my constituents in Laoighis-Offaly, particularly those in Portlaoise. The loss of jobs in any town is obviously a serious issue and a sad time for the families of those directly involved. There is also a consequent adverse spin-off for the town and surrounding area. County Laois has been neglected by the Government in the employment creation stakes. Week after week, the Tánaiste parades around the country announcing the fruits and benefits of the Celtic tiger. Hundreds of jobs are created in every provincial town and city through multi-million pound international investment. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of job creation or investment in County Laois, or of assistance by the agencies, the Minister or her Department. There seems to be no interest in County Laois on the part of the Minister, her Department, the Government or State agencies, particularly the IDA.

Portlaoise is a modern, progressive town which expects huge population growth in the next five years but many people living in the town work in Dublin. The dormitory town syndrome is becoming more prevalent as we approach the millennium — people leave on an early train and return late in the evening — and this has created a social and economic imbalance. I urge the Minister of State to create an initiative for a positive job creation venture in the town.

County Laois has a weak industrial base. IDA employment statistics show that 3.5 per cent of jobs created in the State were in the midlands region, and County Laois received precious few of those. There can be no doubt that the county, and Portlaoise in particular, has been neglected by the IDA. Having regard to this, Laois County Council undertook an initiative to prepare a state of the art industrial business park, and a 2,400 square foot unit is in the course of construction. This will be appropriate for high quality international investment. Unfortunately the marketing of this site by the relevant agencies has been non-existent.

I invite the Minister, the Minister of State and the IDA representative for the midlands region to the County Hall, Portlaoise, to meet the county development team, officials of Laois County Council and Portlaoise Chamber of Commerce. I ask that they do so before Christmas so that the people of Laois can see the Government is about to redress the imbalance. The Minister met a deputation last January. She was courteous, understood the problem and was presented with papers — Deputy Fleming was there and can confirm this — but regrettably the follow-up has been minimal.

Portlaoise is strategically situated in the heart of Laois, which is in the heart of Ireland. We have an excellent road and rail infrastructure, the town has attractive schools and health services, and the quality of life for those working in the area is excellent, but for those not working the position is worrying. I am critical of the IDA and the Minister. I cannot understand why Portlaoise has not been aggressively marketed by the IDA and Forbairt. The Minister may set up all the task forces she likes but they will only succeed if the will is there. I look forward to seeing her and the Minister of State in Portlaoise before the end of the year.

Mr. Fleming:

I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the recent closure of C & M Europe in Portlaoise, with the loss of 50 jobs. I ask the Government what measures it proposes to take to find replacement jobs and to ensure a higher priority is given to promoting employment and investment opportunities in Portlaoise and County Laois. We received a major shock when a PR company in Dublin faxed us with news of the imminent closure of C & M Europe. The employees were told on Friday week last and by last Wednesday the factory was closed. It was a sudden exit in the immediate run-up to Christmas and is a major blow to the workers concerned. I have no doubt the company will honour its legal commitments on minimum notice, redundancy, etc., but the workers should be given some hope. It was a skilled workforce and we should find replacement jobs as urgently as possible.

I call on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to set up a jobs task force for County Laois, with an immediate and specific brief to examine industrial employment in the county. We have a lot of service and public sector employment, whether in the prison, Bord na Móna, Telecom Éireann or Government offices, and there is also a lot of agricultural employment, but we have a woefully inadequate industrial base. The county's industrial output per capita is the second lowest in the country, and this must be addressed. We have not received priority from the IDA to date and I call for County Laois to be pushed higher up the priority list as soon as possible.

There are big employers in every direction outside County Laois: Modus Media in Kildare town employs 1,000 people; Braun in Carlow employs well over 1,000; Kilkenny has Avonmore; Roscrea has Antigen and Ashbourne Meats. The problem is that there are no major industrial employers in County Laois, which can be shown in two ways. First, it is outrageous that FÁS social employment projects are the single biggest employer in the county — up to 700 people are on those projects, which run from year to year. If we have to rely on such projects, it shows the lack of industrial promotion to date. The second factor is clear from today's editions of the two provincial newspapers published in the county, the Leinster Express and the Laois Nationalist. There are 41 major job advertisements in those newspapers: 13 of the companies placing advertisements are based in Kildare, nine in Carlow, seven in Offaly, three in Dublin, one in Tipperary and one in Wicklow, while only seven out of the 41 companies are based in Laois. Some 34 of those companies are based outside Laois — in other words, 83 per cent of those advertisements are encouraging Laois people to work in other counties.

This highlights the essence of the problem — Laois people are willing to work but they are working outside the county. Every morning hundreds of Laois people leave the county by train from Portlaoise, Portarlington or Ballybrophy, by public or private bus, or by private cars, to work in neighbouring counties or in Dublin. Laois people who want to work have to leave the county. Last week, a building society manager in Portlaoise said he had noticed an enormous increase in mortgage applications from people who wished to buy houses in Portlaoise but whose certificates of income came from companies outside the county. He asked me when the town would get a reasonable sized industry. There have been recent initiatives and I look forward to working with the Minister and the local authorities to attract industrial projects to the county.

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. Treacy):

At the outset I sincerely thank Deputy Flanagan and Deputy Fleming for raising this matter on the Adjournment. I share fully their concern and disappointment at the recent decision by C & M to close its plant at Portlaoise and am conscious of the effect which this closure will have on the town and, most immediately, on the employees concerned. C & M Europe Limited is a subsidiary of the C & M Corporation of Connecticut, USA. The parent company was established in 1964 and employs 650 people in America and Ireland in the production of cables for the computer, telecommunications and medical industries. The Irish operation commenced production in Portlaoise in 1991 and employs 50 people in the manufacture and marketing of wire and cable for the electronics industry. During the past two years the company intensified its efforts to develop a new range of products for use in the telecommunications industry where future growth prospects were encouraging.

However, despite the best efforts of the Irish management to develop and progress the Portlaoise operation, it was badly affected by global market developments in the cable sector. In particular, a downturn in the market for key customers of C & M has adversely impacted on the company, and this has led to a sudden and irretrievable loss of business to the Irish plant. Against this background C & M has, unfortunately, decided that its Irish manufacturing operation is no longer viable. It will, however, retain a small sales staff in Portlaoise to support its European customers.

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 and the competitive intensity of the market segment in which a company positions itself.

I assure the Deputies and the House that IDA Ireland is actively pursuing a strategy to increase employment in County Laois. As part of the agency's marketing efforts to enhance the attractiveness of the county for inward investors, it entered into a land swap with Laois County Council in 1997. This resulted in the establishment of a new 45 acre business and industrial park by IDA Ireland on the Mountrath Road.

At the end of 1997, IDA Ireland invested approximately £500,000 for the provision of all the necessary services and landscaping to enable the park to be established as a quality location to compete for overseas mobile investment.

At the same time, IDA Ireland issued a BES certificate to private developers for the construction of a 20,000 sq. ft. unit at the park, and construction of the new facility commenced in October 1998.

The availability of this new business and industrial park and an advance factory facility is critical to IDA Ireland's marketing programme for inward investment to the area. With this new facility coming on stream in early 1999, IDA Ireland will concentrate its efforts on securing a client for County Laois at the earliest possible stage.

In the light of the job losses at C & M, I have asked the agencies to intensify their efforts to facilitate additional investment, job creation and job maintenance in the region. FÁS will also do everything possible to assist redundant workers through initiatives such as training and retraining.

I have listened with great interest to what the Deputies have said and I concur entirely with their sentiments. The House can be certain that we are committed to ensuring that we get a replacement industry for Portlaoise and the greater Laois area as quickly as possible.

I listened to what Deputy Flanagan said about a meeting and about setting up a task force. I will convey his sentiments to my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Harney. I was disappointed that Deputy Flanagan did not mention the county enterprise board. I had the pleasure of visiting Portlaoise recently. I saw an enterprise exhibition of the highest standards showing entrepreneurship, flair, and industrial development at a micro level which I believe will become macro and make a major contribution in the future.

I had the pleasure yesterday of presenting the National Enterprise Awards. County Laois was represented in the national finals. There is hope. There is opportunity, and there will be further investment in Portlaoise before this Government leaves office and renews itself for another term of office.