: I am profoundly disappointed at the announcement last week that yet another 190 jobs are to be lost in the peninsula of Inishowen, County Donegal. I offer my sincere sympathy to all those families touched by this news who will inevitably have a very bleak beginning to the new millennium, contrary to the national trend. Many families will be affected not for the first time, and it will not be just one member of a family who will have to bear the brunt of a sore that is tearing away at the very fabric of society within the peninsula. My disappointment has been increased by two factors. The first is that this is yet another body blow to an area within County Donegal that has seen the loss, in the past year, of a significant number of jobs in Fruit of the Loom, Buncrana, the closure of Fruit of the Loom in Malin, Fingal Shirts in Moville, Jockey Underwear in Fahan, Glenveagh Mushrooms in Newtowncunningham and the list goes on. The second is that there has not been anything to replace these jobs which I have spoken about at various times in the past year.
We are in an area of high unemployment before one even looks at the job losses in the past 12 months. I accept that the Donegal Task Force Initiative was set up and has reported to Government. I acknowledge the tremendous work put into this, particularly by its chairman, and the work of agencies such as FÁS in dealing with the aftermath of all these announcements. Yet for those people, here we are 12 months on and really at the same point as at last October – facing these losses without alternative jobs being announced.
We are glad the long wait for information has been shorter on this occasion and that the Fruit of the Loom has given a projection of how things will progress over the coming months. We have to be optimistic that the redundancy packages will reflect the hard work and loyalty of all those involved. We would like to think, however, that having shed 190 jobs at this point the people remaining in employment will not only be secure in their employment but will have a job that reflects the high level output that these workers yield, so that they will not find themselves with a continually falling wage packet along with the associated blow to morale this brings.
Despite all that is happening in terms of enterprise throughout the country, I am very disheartened at the results to date in my own county and particularly in Inishowen. When one hears of companies in the South importing workers by the hundred from Scotland while we have a labour force ready and waiting it leaves everyone asking the same questions – why are our factories not even receiving outsourced work? Why are we not getting small factories that would negate the need for a mass importation of labourers? Why are we continuing to hear of hundreds of new call centre jobs being created in the capital and large towns that are already lost for employees? Why are we not recognised as being near the large urban centre of Derry and its associated port? How many other locations could boast of being half an hour from a regional airport and port and being less than two hours from an international airport and port? Can Dublin say the same? How many investors have been taken into the region through the new London-Derry air service that the Tánaiste's work last year helped to achieve? How many other places could offer the loyal, hardworking labour force that we have on hand? Where else in Ireland do we find the words: "We do not want our son or daughter to have to leave for America" on the eve of the new millennium? This should be a thing of the past.
I ask the Tánaiste and Minister of State to look at the immediate difficulties of the support for people to go back to third level education and for the support to go back to work. I ask them both to keep their focus and that of their agencies on us. I ask that the task force report is fully implemented.
It is recognised by the development agencies that we need both air access to Dublin from Derry and a direct train service. These services cannot be put on the long finger any more. Throughout the country there are regional airports being supported to provide very necessary and valuable social and economic services which may not be very profitable. Similarly, there are rail networks throughout the country except for those of us in the real north. We in north Donegal do not accept that we should be dismissed as peripheral or inaccessable. That is too easy. Large industries like Fruit of the Loom have survived successfully for a number of years. We need aspects of our infrastructure to be given the same priority that all other counties have received down the years, if we are to become closer to Dublin, which is what State agencies based in Dublin seem to require. With the assistance of the Tánaiste and her cabinet colleagues I expect this will be resolved. We are not being greedy. We are asking for what has not reached us – a rail and air link to Dublin and fair decentralisation of the jobs being created as is the stated policy of the State agencies. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that the Inishowen Millenium Project will be good news on the jobs front and let us start the millennium now.