I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to do what I seem to do on a regular basis, come into the House to express my sincere sympathy to people who will lose their jobs in County Donegal, particularly in my region of Buncrana. While I am disappointed the Minister is not present to respond, I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy.
The loss of 67 jobs in Buncrana in March 2002 will mean a bleak Christmas for many families. Many young people with mortgages will be added to the hundreds of others whose redundancy packages have run out. Their financial position is affecting local businesses and the urban council, given that the urban council got most of its rates from Fruit of the Loom which has become almost extinct.
Do we understand the extent of the collateral damage behind these announcements when they run off our tongue – 67 job losses? Did it make the evening news on RTE? I do not think it did. Did the fact that thousands of people had already lost their jobs in this rural area, which is reliant on a small number of employers and not on a large urban centre where jobs can be replaced within weeks, make the latest news? Seán Dorgan was on television this evening and there was widespread reporting of what he said today. He was talking positively about the situation. He said he sees good prospects over the next few years, including the creation of 50,000 jobs by overseas companies and companies are still recruiting people. He said that he "sees important developments still coming." He said that "IDA Ireland will secure a number of significant projects in the health care, international services and pharmaceutical sectors over the next six months." That is his job, but what percentage of those jobs, if any, will come to Inishowen? Mr. Dorgan said that new jobs would match the number of jobs lost. Will he ensure in retrospection that is a geographical match? Does he remember what people have experienced in Buncrana, Raphoe, Milford, Moville, Carndonagh, Malin, Fahan and in other places I could mention?
I want to know from the Minister of State's Department and or the IDA where within Inishowen we can expect this good news will affect. I want the IDA, through the Minister of State, to inform me where is worse off than my immediate peninsula in terms of neglect and the lack of imagination exerted to resolve its level of unemployment? I need not go beyond the fact that we have been waiting for more than four years for IDA land to be transferred to county council ownership to let a local development group do what the IDA failed to do in four years, create jobs. This proves the lack of priority given by the IDA to Inishowen.
Each region may have experienced job losses, but the IDA invariably succeeds in making an announcement for those regions within weeks or months. I want an answer to why I have not heard the IDA's answer to addressing the hundreds of job losses in that region. I do not want an opt out clause about the national development plan and infrastructure. Job creation and infrastructural development must continue for the north west region.
In respect of Fruit of the Loom in particular, I trust the news – of which I await confirmation – of a new owner may bring stability. I welcome the new owner's promise of investment and development in technology and skills, but people should not consider the stabilisation of Fruit of the Loom at the level it is at as a problem solved. People there want to know the bigger picture for the full work force in the immediate, medium and long-term. We were told a few years ago what the medium and the long-term picture would be up to 2006. Under the new ownership what are the immediate, medium and long-term solutions and projections? What will happen the old plant? How many plants will the IDA market? What is the position regarding redundancy, if sought, of the workers currently employed by Fruit of the Loom who will work under the new owners? They are now working seven days a week, instead of six days. Will the workers continue to be on eight hour work shifts? There are many questions regarding the plant, none more pertinent than who owns the machinery. Has it remained in Buncrana or gone to Morocco?
I could continue ad nauseum posing questions asked of me on a daily basis. My job is to reiterate that the people in that region have suffered long and hard as a result of job losses. The advent of peace on the island should be maximised to benefit that region. The people there feel their situation is bleak, yet the IDA is confident of many new projects coming into the country. I ask that many of those be directed immediately to my area and, if they are not, I will want to know why. We will not accept that we are peripheral and do not have a suitable labour force because we are not peripheral. We have one of the best labour forces in the country.
The infrastructure in the region is adequate to attract the creation of 12,000 jobs there. Some 4,500 workers in Fruit of Loom were satisfactorily employed by the company for 12 years. If those workers could stay there for that length of time, many other people can do so.
