Vol. 541 No. 5
94 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if steps have been taken to provide retraining or alternative employment for the 340 workers due to lose their jobs when a company (details supplied) closes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23186/01]
I have been in touch with FÁS, the national training authority, and it has initiated a range of training advice and skills assessment for the company's staff. It is arranging one-to-one interviews to establish training needs. When these needs are identified, appropriate courses can be organised. In addition, information is being provided to staff who wish to start their own businesses. The work force is also being given access to employers who have suitable vacancies advertised with FÁS.
The company, at its own expense, has engaged the services of a firm of consultants which has initiated a formal out placement programme. This will involve three specialists undertaking individual interviews with staff, assisting them with CV preparation and interview techniques, discussing career options and assisting them in job searches. This programme will run for approximately three months. The company is also facilitating approaches made by other employers inquiring about the availability of staff and it is contacting other companies which may be in a position to recruit additional staff.
The Institute of Technology, Tallaght, has also offered its assistance in the provision of retraining courses. The IDA is seeking to identify suitable investors interested in acquiring the lease of the factory with a view to recommencing manufacturing activity at the plant and, if possible, the re-employment of some of the existing work force.
Does the Minister agree this is the type of employment our constituency can ill-afford to lose, that these types of jobs are very difficult to replace and that the emphasis needed on up-skilling and in-service training is still not evident in this country? I presume the Minister knows that an agreement was concluded only a month in advance of the closure of this factory that would have involved an element of up-skilling and that might ultimately have led to the retention of at least part of the plant. I am sure she is also aware that a new facility was retained in mothballs for some time in the Whitestown industrial estate in the expectation that this company would have transferred there. Does it not bring into sharp focus the necessity for us to target training on workers in employment and up-skilling them where feasible? Many of these workers will find it difficult in the new climate to obtain alternative employment because the climate has changed dramatically, even in the short few months since the House last met.
I am familiar with the company's plans. I acknowledge that it has given valuable employment in the Tallaght area since 1980 when it was first established at the facility. It was the case that the company was very optimistic about its future even though it had suffered losses in Dublin for the past three years. Owing to over capacity globally and the need for the company to restructure its global operation and shed more than 16,000 jobs, unfortunately the plant at
Tallaght became a victim of that decision and over capacity.
Training is happening. It is the case that both indigenous and foreign companies located in Ireland are finding it very difficult to compete with China and many other countries in Asia and central and eastern Europe where labour is substantially cheaper. Where we have to compete is in what is called in the jargon "value-added" activity, something which is increasingly carried out in Ireland. It involves greater product development, design and innovation and where the labour input is a smaller proportion of the overall cost of the production of the product.
That begs the question, as Deputy Rabbitte suggested, about the skills base of the work force. Clearly, an unskilled work force will not be suitable for employment in that area. We have seen fantastic examples throughout the country where new technology is being put in place in some old companies. Some very traditional companies are now highly successful. Even in the textile industry there are companies that have embraced technology, Michael H being a case in point which is competing very successfully by embracing, among other things, new technology and upgrading the skills base of the work force to use it. The same must apply across the board.
It would be fair to say that, because of the global down turn in the high-tech sector, where we have seen the loss of 500,000 jobs so far over the past 12 months, 200,000 in the United States alone, and notwithstanding our best efforts on training and up-skilling we will unfortunately feel some of the effects of that downturn. The effects have not been as great as they might have been, but that is not to take away from the number of people who have lost their jobs. The national training fund and many of the initiatives, such as Skillnet, which is an employer-trade union initiative, and many of the other initiatives in place are working successfully to rebalance the efforts made in the past in training where it was almost exclusively the training of the unemployed. The balance is quickly moving to the training of the employed for a completely different work environment and scenario.
That concludes this question and we move on to Question—
Could I ask the Minister—
The Deputy has ten seconds.
Has the Minister any pro-
cedures in place to monitor the success of the measures she has described in terms of alternative employment being found for the workers concerned?
The Minister has ten seconds.
The answer to that is "yes". The results of a number of the key closures in recent months, such as they have been, given that many will not take full effect until the end of the year, have shown that there has been a high rate of transfer to other employment and, in some cases, retraining.
