asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce what progress has been made towards finding an alternative company to continue production at a factory (name supplied) in Cresslough, County Donegal; and the prospects for the continued employment of the workers presently engaged there.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Co. Donegal Industry.
55.
Negotiations are still proceeding with a number of companies for the location of an alternative industry at Creeslough. It is not possible at this stage to give any firm indication of the likely outcome of these negotiations.
I did not hear the Minister's first remark. Would he please repeat it?
I do not want to run the risk of the Deputy not hearing again.
It is hard for Deputies on all sides to hear the answers.
Am I to take it that the Government and the Department have not been successful in obtaining an alternative company to continue production in Cresslough?
My information is that the IDA have been endeavouring to interest other companies. There may be a slight move away from the type of industry which is there, or a complete move away from it.
Would the Minister tell us what he is trying to say?
I positively do not intend saying any more.
(Interruptions.)
There are over 100 people involved in this small industry and it is despicable that the Minister for Industry and Commerce should treat the matter so lightly.
The Deputy should put a question.
It is not near Clara.
The Deputy is making observations.
I want to use this opportunity to protest at the manner in which the Minister is treating this subject. Can the Minister not give any better guarantee to the workers of Cresslough than the pious platitudes he has been throwing around for the last ten minutes that there will be some chance of their continuing in employment after July and indeed September of this year?
The Minister is not trying to play down the problem. The Deputy asked what progress was being made towards finding an alternative company and my reply covered that question.
Would the Minister say if it is not correct that the first lot of workers in the Cresslough veneer factory are being dismissed this week and the balance of them in September and that nobody has so far told them if there is any prospect of employment of any kind either related to the veneer industry or anything else? If something is not done the only thing they can do is emigrate.
In addition to the information already asked for might I ask whether the Minister will clarify what I think was rather obscure in his reply that the seeking of alternatives does not preclude the continuance of veneer milling in Cresslough, in other words that veneer milling is not yet abandoned as a possible continuance in Cresslough and that only as an alternative would a different type of work or enterprise be sought for it? From the original reply it would appear to me, at any rate, as if an alternative type of industry which could be located there was being sought. I would ask the Minister to bear in mind that the type of industry already there is the one most likely to continue to succeed because of the fact that it is not purely for economic or viability reasons that the present works are closing down there.
In the negotiations which have been going on in order to find an alternative I can confirm that the alternative includes, as Deputy Blaney has just said, the possibility of continuing the present type of operation in Cresslough.
Is it not true that the only indication given so far is that the present manager is building a new house which would indicate that he does not intend to leave anyway and there may therefore be the possibility that somebody is going to come along and give him a job?
I have no information about that.
I am giving the facts to the Minister.
May I be allowed to ask one final supplementary?
One final supplementary.
Would the Minister not encourage some Irish, British or Continental company to continue production as requested by Deputy Blaney and myself? The men there are trained in this art and the production line at the factory is the most modern in Europe and yet the Minister is allowing it to close down.
The Deputy has a very convenient way of saying that I am allowing it to close down.
If the Minister had opened it he would have claimed credit for it.
(Interruptions.)
The remaining questions will appear on next Wednesday's Order Paper unless Deputies require and are willing to take written replies, which they can have.
Are we going to have the same procedure as we have had for the past few weeks where questions directed to certain Ministers go to the bottom of the list? Even if we stay here until November we shall never have an answer to a question addressed to the Minister for Local Government or the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs.
Give Deputy FitzGerald his holidays.
I shall take my holidays whenever the Minister for Justice allows me to do so.
This is not a matter for the Chair.
(Interruptions.)
I never said a cross word, why pick on me?
I do not want a written answer to Question No. 173. We did not even reach Question No. 60 today.
It is not the fault of the Chair that this has happened.
I appreciate that, but I feel the Chair could influence the procedure about the order of questions.
All the Chair can do is have the matter referred to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
As a result of a bank robbery in Donegal I put down a question, No. 72 on today's Order Paper, about the appalling conditions of the vehicles available to the gardaí in Donegal and I now find, like other Deputies that I must ask for a written reply. I will not therefore be able to get certain guarantees from the Minister for Justice. Can I accept a written reply to my question and raise the matter on the adjournment tomorrow evening?
It is now past the time to give notice this evening; the Deputy can give notice tomorrow if he wishes.
Might I ask the Chair to take whatever steps are necessary to remove from the Order Paper two questions of mine, Nos. 163 and 190? They are no longer of any interest.
The Deputy may inform the General Office of their withdrawal.
May I ask for written replies for Questions No. 108 and No. 109?
These can be asked for at the General Office.
If a Deputy accepts a written reply or asks for a written reply and the written reply is unsatisfactory, can he then place it back on the Order Paper?
He can put down another question.
On the same subject?
Surely that would be a repeat?
I have had questions ruled out of order which were not repeats at all. Is there a guarantee that questions will not be ruled out of order?
We can raise the matter on the Adjournment of the Dáil.
Deputies are well aware of this procedure. They do not have to put these question through the Chair.
Did the Chair say if Deputies put down the question again it will not be ruled out of order as a repeat?
I said the Deputy can put down another question.
On the same subject, and it will not be ruled out of order as a repeat?
The Chair is not going to give the Deputy a ruling on that matter here and now.
Unless it can be guaranteed that it will not be ruled out of order as a repeat——
The Chair is giving no guarantees beyond that it has tried to the best of its ability to keep within the rules of order and it would hope Deputies would do likewise.
The Government are very cute because they have let the representatives of the Government who can come in with clean hands answer their questions fair and square instead of reading out long pages of rubbish.
(Interruptions.)