As of now my information is that no final decision has been taken about the future of this plant. There is huge concern among its workforce in Rathfarnham that, of its very nature, this plant important not merely to the Rathfarnham area but to the Dublin area generally, is at risk of being closed within the context of a rationalisation programme at present under discussion between the Avonmore-Waterford Group with regard to its future operations.
The Tánaiste should intervene in this issue. I am very anxious to ensure that this plant remains open. It is very much part of the infrastructure of south Dublin and has played an important role in the area, being the old HB dairy. Indeed, as a boy in short trousers living in the area, I can recall it being one of the major plants providing work in the Rathfarnham area. Its workforce is not now confined to that area only and many come from Finglas, Tallaght and other parts of Dublin.
It is essential to the infrastructure of the area that this plant should continue to operate. Within the context of Waterford Foods, a rationalisation programme was put in place prior to the Avonmore-Waterford Group amalgamation, the object being to optimise the output and efficiency of its operations. Workers from the Finglas plant are now operating out of Rathfarnham. In the past two years, an investment project costing in the region of £5 million was put into the Rathfarnham plant. Some workers in the plant have been there all their working lives — ten, 20, 30 or even 40 years — and they are now faced with the worry of a possible closure.
Not only is there in excess of 300 people working in the plant whose livelihoods are dependent on it, there are others conducting milk rounds who are supplied by the plant, who entered into financial arrangements with Premier Dairies and who have depended in good faith on those arrangements in planning their futures.
This is not a special pleading for this plant which has been operating in an efficient and profitable manner in the context of being part of Premier Dairies, the Waterford Group and, now, Avonmore-Waterford Group. I ask the Minister to meet the workers in the plant, to contact those in charge of the Avonmore-Waterford Group and do what can be done at Government level to ensure this plant remains open and operational as the only major dairy plant in the Dublin area. The workers deserve that consideration.
Those in management positions would acknowledge that there are many who have contributed to the success story of the dairy industry. Many people in Dublin are dependent on output from that plant and it would seem an extraordinarily foolish exercise in economics for it not to be maintained in the context of the extraordinary financial investment made in it.
If this plant were to be closed it would be an extraordinary breach of faith on the part of management with the workforce and the unions which have co-operated in ensuring that this company is successful and profitable and that the contribution made by it to the group is of the optimum benefit. I hope we will get an assurance not just from Deputy Brennan, as Chief Whip, but also from the senior Minister with responsibility in this area that an early meeting can be held so that the workforce can convey its concerns which can then be conveyed to management.
