I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. I raise it to ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to address the position that has developed in Roscommon town with the closure and loss of jobs at Precision Castings and to consider establishing a special task force to promote alternative job creation in the area.
Precision Castings has been in Roscommon town since 1976. Up until now it has employed approximately 42 people. Those people are about to be dumped on the unemployment list. This is a major blow not only to the town of the Roscommon where an industrial job has not been created for over ten years but to the employees and their families. Some of the employees have been with the company for 25 years and others were relatively new to it. They will be out of a job and they and their families will suffer the loss of an income.
It is the general opinion of the people of the town of Roscommon that the Government statutory agency, the IDA, has neglected and failed to respond to the calls made over a period for an advance factory and industrial jobs to be created in Roscommon. We are facing the crisis of a loss of 42 jobs and there is no alternative employment. As an immediate measure I call for the establishing of a special task force to promote alternative job creation in that area. That is the minimum that is required at this time.
Local statutory agencies such as Roscommon County Council and voluntary agencies such as the chamber of commerce are willing and available to assist such a task force. There is a vacant advance factory in the local industrial estate. It has been vacant for the past ten to 12 years. At a time when jobs are being provided all over the country, it is beyond belief that this fine facility which could accommodate any major pharmaceutical industry has been left vacant all that time. A factory owned by Roscommon County Council has also lain idle. The Minister of State will be able to appreciate the anger among the people in the town of Roscommon at the closure of its oldest industry and the fact that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the IDA collectively have failed to respond to the calls to provide industrial jobs in the town.
I have led deputations and made representations to the Minister of State's office where I outlined our requests. I have brought representatives of the chamber of commerce and the county council, both elected and at executive level, to his office to highlight and explain our basic requests. While we have had encouraging words from the Department and the IDA, nothing has come of our efforts. We have reached a crisis regarding industrial and manufacturing jobs in the town.
It has been brought home to me that urgent action is needed. I am here to explain to the Minister of State that the people of Roscommon are not prepared to be treated as second class citizens. They are entitled to their just share of the national cake at this time. It must be explained in detail to the industrial authority that all its efforts and energies must be focused on County Roscommon, particularly on the town of Roscommon.
More than 2,000 applications for planning permission have been made to the local authority this year, many of them by young couples who want to set up home. The agencies given statutory responsibility for providing employment have failed to respond to the town of Roscommon. It is of no comfort to the people of the town that decisions have been made which we all welcome regarding the BMW region, of which we are pleased to be part, and the Shannon tax corridor, which is helpful to the northern half of the county. It is of no comfort to the people of Roscommon that not alone are no new jobs being created there but some of the existing ones will be lost.
At a time when we hear that the city of Dublin is bursting at the seams and can no longer contain its population due to the economic activity taking place there, one can understand the anger and frustration of the people of the town of Roscommon about the current position. These people demand special attention. I hope that in response to this matter an early decision will be made to set up a special task force, that such a task force will involve local and national statutory agencies and incorporate voluntary bodies that are willing to help and that as a result a major decision will be made in favour of the town of Roscommon to locate industrial and manufacturing jobs there in the very near future.
