asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the steps he proposes to take to safeguard the employment of the workers in the boot factory at Knocklong, County Limerick, which is due to close shortly.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Limerick Factory Employees.
26.
I am informed by the Industrial Development Authority that a receiver was appointed to the firm in question on 14th April last. The firm, which was established to produce specialised boots for the US market, has been experiencing serious difficulties in that market. Efforts to secure alternative markets were not successful.
The IDA, through SFADCo, their agents in the mid-west region, are endeavouring to find a suitable replacement project to safeguard employment in the area. The IDA will be prepared to consider sympathetically the use of their full range of incentives to assist any suitable replacement project.
Is the Minister aware that since this question was put down the factory has closed and the workers are now unemployed?
Yes.
Is the Minister aware that those workers were trained over a period of about six months in a highly specialised technique, and that their opportunity of getting employment in any other sort of industry in that area is very remote because there is very little. In these circumstances would the Minister make a special effort to have this factory reopened in the same line of business, whether by the same firm or not?
In my reply I committed the IDA and SFADCo to making every effort to reopen. I do not agree with the Deputy's suggestion in regard to the availability of employment in the surrounding area. The maximum number of people employed in this factory was 12. It came into production in December, 1974, but within an area of 12 miles of Knocklong there were 36 more industrial jobs in 1975 than there were in 1974. There are industrial jobs in the neighbourhood and the number has been increasing over the last three years—104, 114 and 150—within a 12 mile radius. Therefore, while the claim for an alternative with the same skill is very strong, I would not base it on the unavailability of work. It is very desirable to keep the skills that have been built up in that sort of occupation. That is what SFADCo and the IDA are trying to do.
Is the Minister aware that the management, which was imported from America for this firm, was particularly weak, and that on the marketing side the management was almost non-existent? Has the Minister or the IDA any method whereby they could ensure that foreign management which is brought into this country is of an adequate standard to enable enterprises such as this to continue and not to collapse after a very short period?
It is fair to say that the firm was a subsidiary of the US company which came on the basis that it possessed the market outlets in the USA. The track record of the IDA for spotting and heading off potential failures is better than comparable promotion agencies in very many other countries. If one were to draw such rigorous guidelines so as to totally rule out the possibility of failure a lot of valuable companies would be ruled out as well. As the subsidiary of a USA company which possessed outlets it was a reasonable inference that if they decided to set up a plant in Ireland they would be able to market the product. It was not so in this case. I agree with what the Deputy says about the quality of management but that is something for which the IDA could not be blamed for not having foreseen it.
Is the Minister aware that the parent company of this firm in the United States now has 900 orders a week, which would be more than adequate for both factories —the factory in Nebraska and the factory in County Limerick? In those circumstances would the Minister not agree that it is extremely regrettable that after a very short period a foreign firm should be allowed, after availing of public money here by way of training grants and so on, to close the door and clear out?
I entirely agree with the Deputy. But the fact he has quoted about the orders in the United States in Nebraska is an indication that the IDA were drawing a legitimate inference that the production of that Irish factory could be marketed if the parent company were willing to do so. What has happened is deplorable. It is the sort of thing that is difficult to avoid unless one is going to draw such restrictive rules that foreign investment will be inhibited.
Order. Next question.
(Interruptions.)