andMr. Wyse asked the Minister for Industry and Energy if, in view of the Taoiseach's reported statement regarding redundancy in the Dunlop dispute, he will indicate the overall Government plan he proposes to alleviate the present disastrous unemployment situation in the Cork area and to prevent further job losses there.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cork Unemployment.
2.
Mr. Gene Fitzgerald, Mr. Lyons, Mr. Wallace
I am seriously concerned at the level of unemployment in Cork and the recent factory closures ——
I am asking if we have the support of other nations or not.
——and redundancies in the city. Since 1981 the Industrial Development Authority have approved almost 900 projects ——
My question has not been answered.
——for Cork city and county which plan to provide about 10,500 jobs at full production.
Deputy Byrne will please resume his seat.
Could I raise the subject matter of my question on the Adjournment?
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy. Would the Minister please repeat the answer, as I fear the Deputies could not hear.
I am seriously concerned ——
We are all seriously concerned.
I am seriously concerned at the level of unemployment in Cork and the recent factory closures and redundancies in the city. Since 1981 the Industrial Development Authority have approved almost 900 projects for Cork city and county which plan to provide about 10,500 jobs at full production.
The IDA have succeeded in recent years in attracting a significant number of major industries to the Cork area. Many of these companies are still recruiting and a large number of jobs have still to come on stream in these projects. They include North Star Computers, Compucorp and CPT Ltd. These companies already employ over 240 people and plan eventually to employ over 600 people. Three other electronics companies, Western Digital, Cado Systems and Perkin Elmer, recently opened their new factory premises in Cork where they will continue to expand. These companies now employ over 150 people and plan to provide jobs for over 660 people when full production is reached.
Firstly, could the Minister indicate to the House ——
I am sorry, Deputy. There is more information which I omitted to give.
I hope it is better than the information which the Minister has given.
Earlier this year the IDA launched a major new initiative for the promotion of the small industries sector in Cork city and the east Cork area. As part of a pilot programme, the IDA have decentralised their process of providing assistance to small firms. Eight small industry specialists have been assigned to work exclusively with small companies and an IDA small industries board have been established with full grant-giving powers. This represents a major commitment by the IDA to the future growth of the small industries sector in Cork.
The IDA have a strategic site of almost 900 acres at Ringaskiddy which they are promoting for industries requiring special facilities. In addition, the IDA have almost 280 acres of land available in the Cork city area at various locations for industrial projects. There is also 170,000 sq. ft. of factory space either available or under construction in the area which is being promoted for suitable new industries. As part of their ongoing commitment to Cork, the IDA is also providing a new craft centre at the Cork butter exchange in Shandon. Construction work is now well advanced on the 17 unit centre, and it is expected to be completed in the near future. A 30,000 sq. ft. enterprise centre is also planned for the city.
The Minister could have spared us the additional information. That is all old news which has been there for a long time. First of all, would the Minister indicate how many of the 10,500 jobs which he mentioned have already been filled and secondly, when will the full potential of 10,500 be achieved — in other words, in how many years? Is the Minister aware that the growth in unemployment in Cork city from end September 1981 to end September 1983 has risen from 6,531 to 11,328—more than an 80 per cent growth and those figures do not include the recent Dunlop losses? Would he not, as a matter of top priority, give special attention to Cork and by special attention I mean, particularly, attention to the major labour-intensive industries which are at present experiencing difficulty? Would he not regard it as an important aspect of his administration at present to look immediately at the Cork scene regarding such industries, to prevent further job losses and then to tackle seriously, and not in the manner which he suggests, the job creation line?
As regards the first part of the Deputy's question, as he will appreciate, this covers over 900 projects. I do not have available information regarding the exact number of the jobs which have materialised. However, this is a reasonable question and I shall obtain the information for the Deputy. As far as the other aspects of the question are concerned, I would not regard the number of initiatives which were announced as being in any sense old news. They may have been announced before but they are very important, in particular the designation of Cork as the area where a pilot small industry programme is being launched ——
They are welcome but not enough.
——with an independent board for the Cork area working within the IDA ambit. This is a major initiative, in particular in the number of highly skilled staff who have been allocated to find the potential of small industries in Cork, the individuals in Cork who have the capacity to set up businesses. One thing which is quite clear, as the Deputy will agree from his own experience, is that increasingly one finds among the people who, we regret, are unemployed those of tremendous talent who could set up industries or small businesses of their own. In view of the undoubtedly very serious redundancy situation in Cork it is entirely appropriate that the Government should have decided to initiate this intensive small industry programme with an independent board in Cork, where there are undoubtedly a particularly large number of people amongst the unemployed with the capacity to set up businesses of their own.
I want to know what the Coalition Government intend to do about the serious situation in Cork. Everybody is expressing concern. The people of Cork and all of us are concerned. We want action and want to know where all the promises made with regard to Cork at the last election have gone. Everything which the Minister mentioned today we already knew about — the craft centre and small enterprises. We were fully aware of these and the Government are not responsible for any of those.
Hear, hear.
The Minister should be honest.
A question, please, Deputy.
The Minister should tell us what plans the Coalition Government have for Cork. Their local representatives told the people last November about these. He should be honest and tell the people of Cork if he has a plan to deal with Cork which has the highest level of unemployment in the country. Either the Minister has a plan or he has not. What the Minister said here today does not meet the situation.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
That is the question. The Minister should tell us what he is going to do about it.
The Deputies opposite seem to have forgotten that this is a mixed economy. The Government do not control the economy.
That is an easy way out.
The Minister did not say that when he was on the Opposition benches.
The position is that the Government set in place, in an economy such as ours, initiatives such as those which I have outlined, which create the conditions wherein people can set up their own businesses. Fundamentally, jobs will be created here only if we can get the cost structure correct, if we can get inflation under control and reduce the very heavy costs which are imposed on industry by certain charges such as energy. It is only if we can create the conditions in which ——
I hope that they are listening in their rooms.
——industry can be competitive that we can create jobs. I do not subscribe to the view — and some of the more thoughtful Members on the opposite side of the House would not subscribe to it either — that any Government can simply create jobs, full stop. Governments can create the conditions by the prudent management of their own affairs and by taking steps to reduce the excessive costs in the economy ——
Would the Minister like me to quote what he said last year?
——wherein directly competitive independent enterprise can establish employment. It is my intention that that should be the philosophy that we would adopt in dealing with the employment problems in Cork and, indeed, elsewhere. If we were to adopt any other philosophy all we would do would be drown our people in a sea of taxation which they cannot afford to pay.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
I call on Deputy Lyons and then Deputy Wyse.
Where does the Minister get his orders?
I have been entirely consistent in this matter, as the Deputy knows.
Could the Minister tell us what plans he has? Does he know what they are?
Deputy Andrews knows that he cannot speak unless he is standing and he cannot stand unless he is permitted to do so.
Catch 22.
The Cork Deputies who have asked this question having left, and the question having been so long on the Clár ——
A question, Deputy.
I will be putting a few questions to the Minister. I would have expected that in his reply the Minister would have had something better to offer than he had. Right through his reply we heard nothing but small this and small that, when the problem is of immense proportions.
I must ask the Deputy to ask a question.
In his supplementary reply the Minister said technically that the Government can do nothing. The Government should be able to create an incentive. They should be able——
We cannot have a speech.
We cannot have a speech about Cork.
We cannot have a speech about anything, even Cavan, at Question Time.
I will take into account your ruling that we cannot make a speech even about Cork or the situation we find ourselves in there.
I invite the Deputy to read Standing Orders.
I want to ask a few questions. Would the Minister not agree that by creating confidence and providing incentives he would ensure that the Ringaskiddy programme would be completed, thereby providing employment? To provide jobs in the Cork area, will he ensure that the £120 million removed from the capital programme by this Government last February is re-introduced? The Minister and the Government could do that if they had the will and the political commitment to Cork to do it.
All I can do about the first part of the Deputy's question is to take note of it. It is not solely my responsibility or indeed directly my responsibility. I will discuss it with my colleagues. I am surprised that Deputy Lyons should attack the emphasis I placed in my reply on small industries as a means of solving the problem of unemployment in Cork and elsewhere. The experience here and abroad is that there is a better record in creating employment and sustaining it through good industrial relations in small industries than there is in large prestige projects which tended to be promoted by Governments all over the world in the sixties and seventies. In the light of experience the emphasis all over the world now is on small, viable, well-managed projects where there is a good relationship between employer and employees.
Deputy Wyse and then Deputy M. Ahern.
The Minister mentioned responsibility. The Government's first responsibility is collective responsibility. Surely the Minister is aware that Cork is now a disaster area where unemployment is concerned. He mentioned the efforts of the IDA to attract industry to Cork. At the same time the Government are jeopardising the initiative of the IDA by not providing the necessary money to establish a proper harbour in Cork. One statement by the Minister is contradicting the other. It is about time there was collective responsibility between the Minister and the Minister for Finance.
Deputy Wyse should not make a speech.
We are looking for some very special and urgent action in the Cork area.
As a former Minister of State at the Department of Finance the Deputy is no doubt aware that harbours are matters for the Minister for Transport and not the Minister for Industry and Energy. I suggest that he should address his question to the proper Minister.
A final question from Deputy M. Ahern.
One short question.
I have allowed every Cork Deputy to go on the record.
I accept that and I will be very brief.
On a point of order, the Chair said he would allow a question from every Cork Deputy.
I did not.
Every Fianna Fáil Cork Deputy. The others are missing.
Have the Government any plan to alleviate the disastrous unemployment problem? If so, does that plan include provision for bringing oil from the find off the coast into Cork or Waterford? Do the Government still intend to ship it across the water?
That seems to be a separate question.
If the oil comes ashore it will create jobs. If it does not, it will not create jobs.
That sounds logical.
Very briefly——
No. The Deputy will have many other opportunities.
I asked a question which the Minister did not cover in his reply.
I am not responsible for that.
Is the Minister aware that some of the bigger employers in Cork are finding it difficult to maintain their existing number of employees? As a matter of urgency will he investigate ways and means by which such jobs could be preserved? Perhaps some incentives or assistance could be provided before they are lost. Has he had requests for a meeting from some of the major employers in Cork?
We have spent 25 minutes on two questions.
In the light of the prevailing economic situation I am quite sure that a number of firms in Cork and elsewhere are finding it difficult to maintain their present work force. The Department are most anxious to be of assistance in such cases.
The Minister of State, Deputy Collins, has been charged with responsibility for reviewing this position. If Deputy Fitzgerald has any particular case in mind — and I am sure there are many — I will be very happy to arrange for the Minister of State to investigate them in detail.
My colleagues and I have a number of such cases.
I should like to hear from the Deputy.