Zenith Energy Bantry Bay Terminal Ltd. proposes the redundancy of its entire permanent employed maintenance workforce at the Whiddy Island oil terminal, comprising three plant operators, three craft positions and the only higher craft role in health, safety and environment operations, to be replaced with outside contract workers. The breakdown of much of the work being done by the existing excellent permanent workforce can be emergency maintenance to include but not limited to the loading and off-loading of cargo, where qualified personnel can respond day or night at short notice. If this maintenance is to be outsourced, the company may struggle to access personnel with the necessary skills and experience, given the notice required. In addition, these proposed redundancies will have a severe negative effect on the local Bantry and west Cork economy.

The State cannot lie idly by as these workers’ rights are being railroaded. Whiddy Island is a national oil storage base. I ask the Taoiseach to call on Zenith Energy Bantry Bay Terminal Ltd. to step back and to do all it can to save these jobs, and treat the workers and the people of Bantry and its surrounds with the respect they deserve after they have shown such loyalty to Whiddy Island terminal's owners down through the years, and before a full strike is called.

Again, I do not know whether the Deputy has spoken to the company, but we would certainly support the retention of the plant operatives and technicians. We cannot dictate to companies in terms of their employment operations or how they decide to do things, but there are the employment and labour mechanisms, be it the Workplace Relations Commission or otherwise, to try to resolve any issues. In the first instance, the Deputy is asking the company to reflect on and reverse its policy of outsourcing, as opposed to having in-house plant operatives, if I take the point correctly. Again, these are matters on which the company and the unions concerned will have to engage.