asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he will now state the number, if any, of small industries that have started up as a result of the closure last year of the ATT plant in Tallaght, County Dublin.

I am informed by the Industrial Development Authority that prior to the closure of the former Telectron plant, an advice service centre was set up at Tallaght to encourage employees being made redundant to start their own businesses.

As a result, two small industries have commenced operations and a further project is at an advanced stage of negotiations.

Could the Minister give some more details of the two projects which have been established? How many people are employed and what is the projected employment in the area? Would he accept that with the closure of ATT and the subsequent loss of 500 jobs, those small projects which he mentioned hardly make a good success record in view of the talent, expertise and skills which were available in this and other of the newer type of industries?

That is a mouthful of a question, anyway. First, I am disappointed that more projects have not emerged from this study. Something must be learned from it. Following the closure, the IDA set up an advice centre in the offices of the VEC at Main Road, Tallaght from 25 to 27 May, inclusive. This was promoted through the local papers, through individual letters to each employee and at church services. A representative from AnCO and the Centre for Enterprise, Development and Organisation also attended at this advice centre, in addition to the IDA. Fifty-nine people came, of whom 37 were former Telectron employees, so there were 20 others. The vast majority of the callers had no business ideas, which is inevitable. They were not conversant with how one should consider setting up a project. The IDA endeavoured to indicate to them how to go about trying to identify a business idea and the manner of assessing a market for it. There has been no further response from the callers in question. However, two Telectron employees to whom I was referring earlier had, in fact, started small businesses on a part-time basis while working with Telectron some months prior to the closure and these plants are proceeding and expanding. We need to improve considerably the measures taken to encourage redundant workers to set up their own businesses. The success rate has not been particularly good. I had then instructed that a special leaflet be prepared to go out with all redundancy notices indicating the full range of services available, so that people can be encouraged to set up employment-generating businesses. However, I concede that this is an area which requires further study to reach an improved procedure in this area.

The Minister did not answer my original question. He must have forgotten about it. How many people will be employed in the two projects which he mentions? He must accept that it has been a very poor record with regard to replacing the 500 jobs lost in this increasingly populated area.

The companies which have been established are Data Control International Limited, Cornel Electronics and Epsitron Limited. I do not have job numbers here. However, I can indicate that these were established by employees prior to this.

Prior to the closure?

Prior to the closure. Another plant has been established by two men doing PCB artwork in Old Bawn, and the second is in Telecommunications in Athlone town. This latter company now employ five people and hope to raise that to ten. I do not have the employment figures for the other four companies mentioned. I am not trying to exaggerate the numbers. I am not suggesting that there are very large numbers. As I have already indicated to the Deputy, I believe we need to do better in this area. I will be asking the IDA for a report, not in a sense of looking at why they failed in this business but seeing how they can do better in the event of there being further closures.

8.