I welcome the opportunity of raising this important issue. It is not just important in my constituency of South Kerry, but is of national importance. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy McDaid, and hope he will give me the answers that are required. I want to put on the record of the Dáil for a second time a quotation from the former Minister for Public Enterprise, Deputy O'Rourke, speaking on 18 May 1999: "Any decisions in relation to the future of the hotel group will only be taken after the fullest consultation, in particular with the staff of the hotels and with the overriding objective of maintaining and maximising employment". When Deputy O'Rourke made these remarks in the House during a debate on the future of the Great Southern Hotel Group, was she being genuine and honest or was she attempting to lead the workers in the hotels up the garden path? I suspect that the latter is the answer. How is it that, little more than two years after that solemn promise was made in the House, the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney has been closed and is to be sold without consultation with either the unions or the employees at the hotel? I hope the Minister will answer that simple question.
Last Friday morning the workers in the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney were summoned to a meeting at very short notice in the hotel and informed by the chief executive of the Great Southern Hotels that the hotel would not open next year and would be sold by the group. The staff had no idea that the meeting was about to take place and the news hit them like a bolt out of the blue. The trade unions received no notification that the meeting was taking place. In fact some local and national SIPTU officials were not aware that the meeting was taking place until it had concluded. This is a disgraceful way in which to treat workers. They were dragged into a meeting and literally fired at a moment's notice without as little as a representative of their trade union present. Not even the Government Minister from south Kerry was aware that the meeting was taking place and claimed to have been shocked at the announcement that the hotel is to close. This is quite extraordinary.
This episode flies in the face of former Deputy Mary O'Rourke's commitment to the House in 1999 that no changes in the status of the hotel group would take place without consultation. It proves too that relations between the Government and Aer Rianta are at such a low ebb that this announcement was made without the knowledge of some Ministers. Aer Rianta and the Government are currently at loggerheads over sleazy scandals like brandy, cigars and Christmas presents, but are relationships really so bad that employees in one of the most valuable hotels in my constituency have to be treated in such a shoddy manner?
I would like the Minister to state clearly that this is not the beginning of the end of State ownership of the Great Southern Hotel Group, which is the standard bearer for the hotel and tourist industry. Is it the case that, despite all of the promises of my two constituency colleagues in south Kerry in the run up to the last election that the hotels would be retained in public ownership, that the Government is now intent on flogging the family silver without even meeting the unions and employees to discuss it?
Will the Minister for Transport meet the unions immediately, as they have requested, to discuss the future of the hotel and its employees? Will the Government also confirm or deny in the House tonight that a valuer has been to Parknasilla Great Southern Hotel and other hotels in the group? Will the Government apologise to the staff for the appalling way in which the workers at the hotel were treated last Friday and indicate that he will seek a reversal of the decision to sell the Torc Great Southern. If the Minister and Aer Rianta management are in such conflict with each other at present then either he should go or they should go. It is a disgraceful way to treat workers who have been in the hotel over 30 years.
Will the Government stop pussyfooting around the issue of putting hundreds of jobs of hotel workers on the line and state once and for all that the passion of the Progressive Democrats for privatisation has not completely consumed Fianna Fáil and that the Great Southern Hotel Group will remain in public ownership?
