The Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, will be familiar with the company involved. Up to 14 February, when an official liquidator was appointed, Kel Electronics was a highly specialised sub-contracting company. It produced printed circuit boards for the Irish and European markets, with a highly skilled an professional workforce, some of whom had been with the company and its predecessor for more than 15 years. Some of the employees had only recently left school. All the workers were surprised and shocked when unexpectedly and without any prior notice the company was put into liquidation, with the result that 70 people were put out of work.
The company had been operating with a fully trained workforce. The research section was involved in a huge amount of work and the company's order books were full. A supply of orders was coming in on a regular basis and the firm's customers were very satisfied with its high quality products. In fact, the staff were working overtime to meet the demand for the company's products. They had also qualified for the ISO 9002 and a number of other certificates. At the start of this year the prospects for the company appeared to be very bright and it was looking forward to increasing its orders and taking on new employees.
Shannon Development, the agency for the area, had approved a plan for the company to take on additional workers and had approved grant aid of £5,000 per job for an additional 100 people. One can imagine, therefore, the anger, shock and frustration of the people in the company which has now closed down. The liquidator is in possession and I compliment him on the manner in which he has communicated with the employees and local representatives who went to see him about the situation. He has a job to do, however, and in light of these circumstances it will be a difficult one. We hope that at the earliest opportunity it may be possible to re-establish the company and complete some of the existing orders. I appeal for the liquidator to take back some of the staff in order to do this. The customers who supported the company up to now could thus be assured there would not be a loss of confidence in the personnel or products in the event of the company being restarted.
Up to 70 people were employed at Kel including quality controllers, assembly workers and machine operators. There was also a range of accountancy and other financial personnel employed, as well as production managers and stores people. The staff were bewildered when the closure announcement was made. I condemn the fashion in which workers learned of the company's closure in the newspapers. At a time when there has been great co-operation between employees and management, this operation left much to be desired.
People were shocked to find that the doors were closed and they were out of work. Most of them, who did not have long records of employment, received the bare minimum legal entitlement of one week's notice. They have been left in a very difficult financial situation and the sudden collapse of the company has left them angry. They are mystified about the reason for the closure. In most companies that experience difficulties there are indicators that orders are not going out or that there is a problem at management level or elsewhere. In this situation there were no such indications; the order books were full and people were working overtime. The staff want to know what happened and if the situation can be rectified. They want to know if the plant can be reopened or sold on to some new developer, thus enabling those who were employed there to be re-engaged.