The purpose of raising this matter on the Adjournment is to ask the Minister for Industry and Energy the steps taken by his Department to prevent the closure of Kingdom Tubes in Tralee with a loss of 295 jobs. The Kingdom Tubes industry closed down last Friday and caused consternation and gloom in Tralee town where 295 jobs were lost involving an income loss to 295 families. The Kingdom Tubes industry was set up in Tralee about 22 years ago and gave much-needed employment. It was set up by a German firm and there is a sister factory in Germany manufacturing tubes.
This is an appalling situation in a town where there is a very serious unemployment problem. This is no time to let an industry close down. What steps were taken by the Minister for Industry and Energy and his Department to get the Government agencies to rescue this industry which had many orders? I believe those orders were transferred to the factory in Germany. The Tánaiste represents the North Kerry constituency and Tralee town. One would imagine that he would take steps to ensure that a vital factory would not close down in his own town where the unemployment problem is so serious. There is wholesale unrest in the town over the closure.
The men will not get redundancy payments and this is a very important factor to be taken into consideration. The unemployment problem in County Kerry is very serious. Kerry should be declared a disaster area by the IDA. In the county we have 8,411 unemployed, that is, 19.5 per cent of the working people, an increase of 800 unemployed since December.