I welcome the opportunity to raise this matter in the House. The announcement last Thursday that Celtic Circuits Limited, Listowel, will close down on 2 March came as a major disappointment to the 33 staff members at the plant. The closure also represents a significant setback for job creation in Listowel and its hinterland, which has been hard hit by job losses over the past five years. The town lost 105 jobs when Neo Data closed in 1997, 55 jobs in Radlink in 1999 and 75 jobs in Munster Electronics in 1997. A local food company, Caterbake, also closed in 1999 with the loss of ten jobs. The combined loss of 250 jobs over the past four years in a town of this size is equivalent to a loss of at least 100,000 jobs in Dublin. One can imagine the outcry which job losses on that scale would cause in the capital city.
Celtic Circuits, which was established in early 1998, manufactured printed circuit boards in the medium-sized high-tech speciality area. Despite large investments in plant and machinery, the company got into difficulties, largely due to lack of sales and slowness in building up its market. Other contributory factors included the slow-down in the US economy and strong competition from products imported from Asian and east European sources.
I commend the diligence and hard work of the company's managing director, Mr. Kevin Neville, and his staff over the past three years. The com pany developed from producing single layer printed circuit boards to manufacturing quality-assured, high-tech, multi-layered and gold-plated products. The commitment and dedication of the employees was exemplary at all times. The employees are willing to co-operate in every possible way with any future purchaser of Celtic Circuits. They are prepared to be reasonable and receptive to any proposals to secure the survival of the company.
In view of the job losses in Listowel over the past few years and the fact that the local community has raised more than £1 million under a BES scheme to construct a state-of-the-art advance factory in an effort to attract industry to the town, I ask the Minister to see that a special effort is made by his Department, the IDA and Shannon Development to secure an industry for Listowel.
This town now has four empty industrial sites. I doubt if there is any other Irish town, outside the major urban centres, with this amount of unoccupied industrial space available. This level of job losses is unacceptable. I ask the Minister to back the genuine efforts of the local community and labour force to promote industrial development in Listowel by directing the IDA and SFADCo to give top priority to finding a replacement industry as soon as possible.
