asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that a petrol company propose closing their depot at Carndonagh, County Donegal, thereby causing unemployment in the area; and, if so, if he will take immediate steps to make the necessary representations to prevent the company taking this retrograde step.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Donegal Petrol Depot.
I am informed by the petrol company in question that they are discontinuing the depot at Carndonagh as a result of a reorganisation of the company's storage and delivery arrangements, over which I exercise no control. I understand that the workers hitherto employed at Carndonagh will be transferred to the company's depot in Letterkenny.
In view of the lack of employment in Carndonagh, would the Minister make representations to the petrol company concerned to reconsider the decision?
It is a matter in which I have no official function at all.
Perhaps representations from the Minister might have the desired effect.
If the Minister is going to give somebody £60,000 to manufacture chocolate biscuits in Ballina does he not think it advisable to give some inducement to the petrol company to remain in the Carndonagh area? This is an isolated area and it is extremely difficult to find employment there. It is no use telling people from the Carndonagh area to go elsewhere seeking employment. It would be like telling the workers in Dublin to go down to Wicklow.
Does the Minister not think it unwise in regard to this peninsula, which is more or less isolated, to withdraw a depot from the area, and that it will among other things cause serious unemployment? Perhaps he would make a recommendation or at least try to persuade the petrol company that it is unwise to make the alteration.
It is a matter on which I have no information whatever except what the company has said. They say the depot was originally planned for horse-drawn traffic and the time has come to reorganise.
If the Minister thinks it desirable Government policy to pay somebody £60,000 or £80,000 to provide employment in the congested areas would he not think it would be worth at least making representations to somebody who is giving employment in a place like Carndonagh, which has, as the Deputy from Donegal says, peculiar geographical problems, at least to leave the employment there that is there and not take it away?