I am deeply concerned about the future of Irish Steel. I hope the Minister replying will be able to give a categorical assurance on the future of the plant and the position of the 560 workers employed there.
The new threat to Irish Steel arises from the over-capacity for steel on the European market and the desire of the EC to achieve rationalisation and a consequent reduction in production by the closure of a number of plants. However, it must be stressed that by European standards the production capacity of Irish Steel is very small and the Haulbowline plant is not the cause of the over-capacity on the European market. There is excess capacity of about 30 million tonnes, but the total annual production of Irish Steel is less than one-hundredth of that, at only about 250,000 tonnes.
Closing Irish Steel or running it down would not make much of a contribution to solving the problems of overcapacity of steel, but it would be a crushing blow to the east Cork area. There are now more than 30,000 people out of work in Cork city and county. The city has lost traditional major employers like Dunlops and Fords and the east of the county has not done much better.
One of the biggest employers in Cobh, the Verolme Cork dockyard, lies silent and empty, and there is a serious question mark over the position of jobs in Youghal Carpets following changes in the ownership structure of the company. Irish Steel is virtually the last major employer in the area and its workforce contributes £13 million in wages to the local economy. The loss of Irish Steel to east Cork would be just as severe as the Digital job losses will be to Galway.
In addition, there are strategic arguments that Ireland should retain its capacity to produce steel. Only Ireland and Denmark each has a single steel plant. All the other EC countries have several plants and would be able to close one or more while still retaining the capacity to produce on their own territory. On the other hand, if Haulbowline goes, our total capacity to produce steel will be gone.
The Irish Steel plant is relatively modern, having invested in a new mill in 1974. It has until recently been fairly profitable and its workers do not deserve to be sacrificed to meet the needs of the European steel giants.
Huge sums are being touted as being available from the EC to pay the cost of redundancy payments, but this would be a form of fools gold. The jobs lost in Haulbowline would be virtually impossible to replace. We cannot afford to lose any more jobs in Cobh or elsewhere. The loss of jobs has now reached such a level, that we would need to create a huge number of additional jobs simply to stand still. The EC must be told firmly that we do not want money for lay-offs: we want money for job creation.
Despite public denials from Government sources that they are interested in the offer from the EC, there is real fear and apprehension among the workers and the local population generally. I now look forward to a categorical assurance from the Minister that the plant will remain open and existing employment levels will be retained.
