I want to speak about Ireland's position as a leading destination for foreign direct investment and, more importantly, our competitiveness. Over the past decades Ireland has built a strong reputation as an attractive location for multinational companies. However, in a rapidly changing global economy staying competitive requires continuous work, not only in attracting new investment but also in maintaining companies that are already here.
Ireland's success in attracting foreign direct investment is no accident. Our economy offers a unique combination of factors to make us an appealing choice for multinational companies. IDA Ireland is a big part of this success and is a leader in the world at what it does. Attracting new investment is important but keeping the companies already here is just as critical.
Recently, in my constituency of Offaly we lost jobs. Approximately 300 jobs were lost in Cardinal Health, a company that was in Tullamore for more than 40 years. Many of the employees had been there for 20 or 30 years or more. The company contributed greatly to the economy of Offaly over its lifetime. More recently, 40 more jobs went at Nelipak Healthcare in Clara, another company that provided great employment in our county for many years. My information is that in both cases the jobs went elsewhere. In the case of Cardinal Health in Tullamore, which was a very profitable arm of the company I might add, one of the three lines it manufactured was discontinued, the second went to Costa Rica and the other went to Mexico. It looks as though this decision was made by an accountant in United States because the cost of business doing here is too high. In the case of Nelipak Healthcare the jobs went outside of Ireland also.
Every one of these jobs represents a family and a livelihood. I wish those people the best of luck in their endeavours to gain new employment. We need to look after these people by upskilling or reskilling them. When I speak to similar companies they tell me about the cost of employing somebody in Ireland. They tell me about the red tape involved in doing business here, which is time consuming and costly. Rates are higher, the price of utilities is higher and housing for employees is a big problem. We have so much going for us with our great educated workforce, a stable Government, a stable business environment and a keen corporation tax of 15%, while also being an English-speaking country with access to European markets. All of this is good but we need to be careful. We do not need to price ourselves out of the market. We seem to be slipping down the competitiveness table when it comes to attracting new companies here. We must not let this happen. We must reverse this slide and start climbing up the table again.
I cannot mention foreign direct investment companies alone. We need to look at our small and medium sized indigenous businesses also, and make it easier for them to do business here. We need to take a serious look at how we will bring our town centres back to life and attract retail stores back to our high streets. This will take a lot of thinking outside the box and putting in place the right supports to help our town centres thrive and not just survive. What are we doing to maintain our competitiveness? How are we working to improve it? What supports are available for the workers of these two companies, considering some of them are in the autumn of their working careers?
