Vol. 258 No. 11
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will make a statement on the closure of Denny's bacon factory and the consequent redundancy of 300 workers, indicating the reasons for the shutdown; if his Department and the unions concerned were notified in advance of the impending closures; and what measures were taken to avert this situation.
75.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries what direct contact he has made with the directors of a firm in Waterford (name supplied) where redundancy of 300 workers is due to take place; what proposals have been made to the directors of this company; and if he is now in a position to make a statement on the general situation.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 75 together.
I would point out that the company indicated they did not regard it an economic proposition to incur the expenditure involved in bringing their Waterford factory up to the standards now required for meat processing plants and that they therefore decided to close the factory.
The position in regard to bacon factories generally is under consideration by the Pigs and Bacon Commission in the context of the rationalisation of the industry.
Would the Minister please answer the question I asked him? I had better read it out to him because obviously he has not read it. I asked:
If he will make a statement on the closure of Denny's bacon factory and the consequent redundancy of 300 workers, indicating the reasons for the shutdown; if his Department and the unions concerned were notified in advance of the impending closures; and what measures were taken to avert this situation.
Did the Minister answer those questions?
I consider the answer I have given to be satisfactory.
I consider it most unsatisfactory and I would now suggest to the Minister that he should answer my questions. I am asking whether the unions were notified in advance. The Minister is not properly briefed.
Formal notification of the intention to close the Waterford factory on Friday, 4th February, 1972, was received by the Department from the company on 4th January, 1972. Is that what the Deputy is looking for?
I would have thought the Minister should have given that information in his reply.
The Deputy has got it now.
Question No. 76 has been postponed. Question No. 77.
Could the Minister tell us what measures were taken to avert the situation?
The Deputy may not be aware of the fact that it is generally accepted by the pig trade as a whole that in order to protect the jobs of as many workers as possible in that trade it is necessary that there should be a rationalisation of the 35 different factories involved in the business. This will inevitably entail the closing of some premises which are not suitable for the handling of food for human consumption. It is also true that the Denny factory in Waterford was one of the oldest and most antiquated in the country and the Denny Company, bearing in mind the enormous cost of the re-establishment of a brand new industry, and that is what it could amount to, made the decision the Deputy is referring to.
Question No. 77.
Were there discussions about the grants for rationalisation of this premises and——
That is a separate question. We cannot discuss this all day.
The question of workers employment is at stake here——
Indeed it is.
——and these workers were given one months notice. Surely the company should have known long in advance——
The question cannot be made argumentative.
The Government have been preaching for years about rationalisation. Surely they did not come to this decision one month prior to the closure?
The intimation of the final decision was on 4th January. I should tell the Deputy that I am meeting a deputation of the workers from this factory very soon. It would be well for Deputy O'Connell to try to absorb the somewhat unpalatable fact that he is talking not about the jobs of the workers in the Denny factory but of workers in the bacon industry as a whole and if, as it seems to me, he is suggesting that he wants to retain every factory in existence at present at its present level of inefficiency he will destroy the whole bacon industry. I do not expect him to understand this.
Question No. 77.
This is typical of the Minister's complete indifference and unconcern for the workers.
Question Time is not argument time.
The Deputy is showing complete disregard for the workers.
Question No. 77. The Chair wants Question No. 77 answered.
If the Deputy were acting in a responsible way he would recognise the absolute necessity——
When the Minister says I am acting in an irresponsible way he is implying that the transport union is acting in an irresponsible way.
I wonder if I could ask a supplementary on this?
We have had several supplementaries on this already and we have 301 Questions.
I have not asked any. The Minister has now graphically referred to current inefficiency of a number of factories in the bacon industry. Would the Minister not accept that this inefficiency to which he has referred in exoneration of his present inactivity is precisely the fault of the incompetence of his Department over decades?
This is a general question.
That is where the inefficiency comes from.
That is absolute nonsense. I should like to point out that one of the circumstances that led to the relative inefficiency of some of the plants in the bacon industry is the circumstance that we are now trying to break out of by applying for entry to the EEC. Deputy Keating and his friends are the very ones who want to keep us in the situation in which we are bound by quota restrictions to Britain.
The level of quotas is due to the Minister's incompetence and that of his predecessors. He knows the Danes could get ten times as much in.
Two years ago Deputy Keating was broadcasting a programme called "Into Europe" on the national television network. He was leading Ireland into Europe and now he is trying to lead it out again.
This is absolutely untrue as the Minister knows and is a perfect example of the sort of twisting that I accused him of before and of which I now accuse him again. That is a lie, in fact, and he knows it.
The Deputy must withdraw that.
That is a terminological inexactitude and the Minister knows it. I will withdraw the word "lie" but the content was untrue and he knew it was untrue.
Question No. 76 postponed.
77.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries his Department's views on the future of the bacon industries; what factories it is intended to close; and if he will take steps to have the two factories in County Mayo kept in production in view of the large number employed there.
It is accepted by all concerned, that is to say all except Deputy Keating, that rationalisation of the bacon curing industry is necessary. Under the terms of the rationalisation scheme announced in September last the Pigs and Bacon Commission have been authorised to consider offers made to them by individual curers/pork exporters to cease the slaughter of pigs, the curing of bacon and the export of pork and pigmeat products from their premises on the basis of financial compensation. The scheme is voluntary and does not provide for the compulsory closing of any factories.
78.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of bacon factories in Ireland which are in operation; and if he will make a statement in relation to the number of such factories he regards as being viable under EEC conditions.
There are at present 35 licensed factories slaughtering pigs and producing bacon.
Under the rationalisation arrangements for the bacon curing industry announced in September last it is open to the proprietors of bacon factories to offer them to the Pigs and Bacon Commission for closure on the basis of compensation. In addition the commission may invite offers from any other bacon curer if it appears desirable to the commission to do so in the interests of suitable rationalisation in any area. In the circumstances it is not possible at present to say how many factories will remain in operation.
