I offer a word of sympathy on the loss of the great Dub, Christy Dignam. I send our solidarity to his family. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann, gan dabht.

The news overnight of 650 job losses at Tara Mines has left workers, families and the wider community reeling. The suspension of operations at the mine is devastating, and a body blow that will affect the entire community. Workers are being laid off without pay in a matter of weeks. They are now worried about how they will make their mortgage payments and what the future will hold. I express our support and solidarity to these workers and their families at this difficult time They include apprentices who are in the middle of their training and need certainty about how that training can continue.

The impact on the wider community and local economy in Navan will be considerable. Everything that can be done must be done to save these jobs and protect the workers at Tara Mines. The Government must engage with management and the parent company to do everything possible to maintain these jobs. Is buille uafásach é dúnadh Mianaigh na Teamhrach d’oibrithe, dá dteaghlaigh agus don mhórphobal san Uaimh. Ní mór gach rud is féidir a dhéanamh chun tarraingt siar ón gcinneadh agus ní mór gach iarracht a dhéanamh chun na poist seo a shábháil.

While no one could have anticipated the sudden and drastic announcement that came overnight, there was an awareness that the mine was under pressure and there were concerns about its future. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, said in a radio interview this morning that this news "is coming out of the blue". Is that really the case? Everyone paying attention knew there was a very serious problem. In fact, my colleague Deputy Guirke wrote to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who is responsible for the mining industry, on 11 May. That was more than a month ago. I have the letter here. In it, Deputy Guirke warned about the risk of job losses, stating: "If this risk becomes a reality, that would be a major blow to this region, and certainly merits Government intervention as soon as possible." He went on to request that the Minister meet with Meath Oireachtas representatives, along with representatives of SIPTU and the Boliden Tara Mines. By way of response, Deputy Guirke received an acknowledgement from the Minister's office promising to bring the matter to the Minister's attention, and then nothing further. His warning and call for action were met with silence.

Deputy Guirke's letter was written because at that stage, six weeks ago, conversations were ongoing between the union and management and concerns were very, very high. Was the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in communication with the company? Was he aware of the very serious pressure on the mine and its precarious position? Did he share that information with the other members of the Government? Six weeks later and with the worst having come to pass, why is it that the Government is only now looking to take action?

I join the Deputy in expressing my sadness at the news Christy Dignam has passed. He was a legend, a real, great Dub and somebody who will be sorely missed in this city, across the country and by the wider music community.

I thank the Deputy for raising the important and serious news that 650 staff have, in effect, been put on leave without pay essentially, or temporary redundancy, for the period ahead. Of course, it is not just about the 650 staff in the mine. It is also about subcontractors, supply chain and the wider impact on the economy of Navan and the wider Meath area. My first thoughts are with all those affected, including the directly affected workers, their families and anyone who will be indirectly affected. I give the assurance that the Government is here to help, whether with job search, income support or advice on skills, education and enterprise. All the things the Government does will now click in to ensure the workers have their rights protected and know what their options are.

The Deputy mentioned the apprentices. Enterprise Ireland is working at the moment to transfer them to other firms in order that they can continue with their education and not lose out on any time. That work is already under way. We are very keen to make sure this is a temporary closure and that the mine can be reopened and staff can return to their jobs as soon as possible.

There has been ongoing engagement with the company for quite some time. I visited the mine along with the former Minister of State, Deputy English, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, when it was flooded many months ago. There were concerns at the time about the future of the mine. I met the people at Tara Mines a few months ago as the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. There have also been engagements involving the Ministers, Deputies Eamon Ryan, Coveney, McEntee and Humphreys. I do not know the exact details and timeline of all those engagements but it is the case that there has been an engagement with the company for several months, relating in particular to increased energy costs.

A significant change in recent weeks is the very significant fall in the price and value of zinc. If a mine produces zinc and the price of zinc falls, that obviously has a consequence. Energy prices have gone up. That is nothing new. Zinc prices have gone down and that is significant. I understand the company made a decision at international level to close the mine on a temporary basis. Neither energy costs nor zinc prices are under the direct control of the company or the Government. There has been ongoing engagement with the company and we want to help. That can involve putting in place an energy scheme. We have energy schemes in place for small businesses and large businesses. In addition, bespoke schemes are available where they are required. However, it is not as simple as that. The price of zinc has gone down on the international market. When the product a company produces falls in value, it has to do the maths. It would appear this company has done the maths and has decided to close the mine temporarily.

Our objective in the immediate term is to make sure the apprentices can continue their apprenticeships in other companies and the 650 people who were laid off get income support and any advice and help they need in terms of alternative employment, education, training and all the things that click in when job losses occur. In the medium term, the objective is to get the mine back open. We are willing to work with the company on doing exactly that. Also, there has been significant engagement with the company on its long-term plans. There are plans for the long term to develop what is called Tara Deep, which is the next phase of the mine. If we can get agreement on that, we can secure the future of the mine for decades ahead. That is the objective.

This, then, was not a matter of surprise. The Taoiseach set out what seems to be an extensive range of engagements involving the mine and various Ministers. I am at a loss as to why the Taoiseach is feigning surprise. It was clear to Government that the mine was under significant pressure. As a matter of fact, it has been reported in the media that the company had written to Government on 29 March to warn of the possibility of it ceasing operations. Clearly, the company had done the sums, as the Taoiseach said, but Government had not done the sums or its work. I am at loss to understand why, when the worst has happened, the Government has left it this late to intervene. It strikes me that a Minister or Ministers are asleep at the wheel. Of course, the objective has to be that apprentices get to finish out their apprenticeships and that this closure is temporary. Everything must be done to ensure that that is the case. However, the Government also has to answer the question as to why, when it knew the pressure that this company was under, it is only now that we are seeing action. We also need to know why the Government feigns surprise in a scenario that in fact, as the Taoiseach said, was not surprising at all.

It is disappointing that the Deputy is trying to exploit this issue. This is really bad news.

Yes.

Some 650 jobs have been lost in County Meath. This will impact on thousands of people. It is disappointing that the Deputy is taking this approach to it.

It is disappointing that the Government let this happen.

Please, Deputy.

Let me answer the question. The announcement of the 650 temporary layoffs did come as a surprise. It probably came as a surprise to the management locally as well. They were due to meet the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, next week. There was no indication that this was going to happen in the way it did, all of a sudden. The fact that the mine was under pressure is no secret. Energy prices have gone up and zinc prices have gone down. Everyone knows that. That has been the case for months. The Government will work with the company-----

What did you do?

The Government will work with the company to see what we can do to get the mine reopened and Tara Deep advanced in order that we can secure the future of the mine for decades ahead. It is not the case that just by being aware of a problem, the Government can save every job and business in the country. The price of zinc has gone down. It has gone way down. What happens when the price of the good or service you produce goes down? That happens, and-----

I am not stupid. I can grasp that.

-----the Government cannot-----

The Taoiseach did not do his job again.

-----intervene on matters like that.

On behalf of Labour, I want to begin by joining with others in sending our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the late Christy Dignam, in particular his wife Kathryn and his family. He will be greatly missed for his immense contribution to Irish music, society and culture. I also want to express my sympathies on behalf of Labour to the family of John Murphy. John was one of two men who suffered severe injuries at a Cork Stryker plant in April and he sadly died last week. Our thoughts are with his family and friends too.

Last night, in an announcement that was a surprise, it is fair to say, and a shock, 650 workers at Tara Mines were informed that they would be laid off temporarily. I express solidarity with all those involved, not just the 650 directly affected but the maybe 2,000 people whose livelihoods we know will be indirectly impacted as a result of what has happened. Management has cited inflation as a factor underpinning this decision. Inflation affects workers too. As Michael Fitzgerald, a SIPTU shop steward for the miners, said, "The cost of living is hurting everyone. It might be hurting the company, but it's hurting us as well." He is right. Management at Tara Mines has been happy to capitalise on the hard work of its employees in Louth and Meath, yet when times get tough, it has socialised its debts and put its workers out to pasture. The Government is presiding over a social welfare system that is not fit to protect workers from the worst impacts of the loss of livelihood. This is because there is no meaningful, modern scheme to support and keep them in work.

This is the latest in the series of layoffs since the Minister, Deputy Coveney, took office in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It has been stated that the layoffs at Twitter sparked a positive change in thinking in Government Buildings on workers' rights. I should hope so, given that workers' rights receive no stand-alone treatment in the programme for Government. We know that more is needed to support workers in these situations. I want to outline two constructive proposals from Labour and SIPTU. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's response to both. The first is the reform of our welfare system, which is out of kilter with those in mainstream Europe. As Adrian Kane of SIPTU stated, the workforce at Tara Mines have the normal outgoings that so many are struggling with in the cost-of-living crisis, including high rents and mortgage payments and grocery, energy and childcare costs. These workers face a huge drop in income when they go on social welfare, as anyone who does the sums will see. In our submission to the public consultation on jobseeker's benefit, Labour called for a welfare system which would index workers' income up to 60% for six months minimum, with a floor beneath which no one can fall. Will the Government implement that proposal as part of the budget? Second, I ask him to answer another call, which Deputy Nash, Senator Marie Sherlock and all of us in Labour have been making, for the introduction of a short-term working scheme modelled on the employee wage subsidy scheme and the German Kurzabeit scheme to protect working people who are laid off and provide State subsidies to pay workers when their employers encounter difficulties. Will the Government introduce these two measures to protect those in the situation that we see the workers in Tara Mines in today, and if so, when?

I thank the Deputy for her remarks and her question. What has happened here is not the general impact of inflation, but the cost of energy. The cost of energy for the company has gone up, the value of its product, zinc, has gone down, and the company is now losing a lot of money. As a result of that, it has chosen to close the mine for a temporary period. We will be working very hard with the company to make sure that the apprentices can finish their apprenticeships in other companies, that the staff can be taken back on - because these are temporary redundancies - and the mine can be reopened. That can involve a scheme to help with energy costs, but cannot involve price supports for commodities or zinc. That is not something that the Government can do.

I do not think it is entirely fair to say that the company has entirely socialised this matter. It has been paying 10% employer's PRSI. For every €10 it pays its staff, €1 is paid in employer's PRSI. That is what funds the Social Insurance Fund. That is the money that workers will be getting. It is coming out of the Social Insurance Fund. Most of the money that goes into that fund comes from employer's PRSI.

On the general issue of workers' rights, the Government - just like the previous one - has proven that it is serious about workers' rights. We established a statutory sick pay scheme. I did that myself. It is now the law and people are benefiting from it this year. We have increased the national minimum wage ahead of the rate of inflation nearly every year for the past ten years. We are now moving towards a living wage based on 60% of median income. We have also protected tips and gratuities, for example. Legislation was enacted last year that introduced parental benefit and parental leave. Significant reforms have been made in favour of workers' rights by this Government and by that which preceded it. I am glad we were able to make that progress.

When it comes to the reform of the welfare system, the Minister for Social Protection is developing proposals for what are called pay-related benefits. This is something that I have spoken about before, and something that I strongly support. The left is divided on this, but I appreciate that Labour is in favour of it. This would recognise the fact that somebody who pays more into the PRSI system should get more out if they need it. As a result, if someone becomes unemployed, he or she would not immediately get the basic jobseeker's rate. He or she would get a higher rate because he or should would have been making contributions. That higher rate will be a percentage of a person's income up to a maximum ceiling. The Minister for Social Protection is developing those proposals at the moment, and we wish to press forward with them. Whether it can be in the next budget or not, I cannot say at this stage. There will be an associated cost that will mean higher PRSI contributions. If higher PRSI contributions result in higher benefits, however, then the case is worth making.

I thank the Taoiseach for the response on pay-related benefits. I share his hope that this will be a short-term temporary layoff for the workers affected. Again, my thoughts are with the workers. The Taoiseach has not answered my question on the proposal for a short-term working scheme. Indeed, is it a proposal that has been put forward across the labour movement. I would like a clear response on that. We have seen it used elsewhere to protect workers in this situation.

I have a further question. The Taoiseach stated that there has been engagement between Tara Mines and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for some months now. I have a specific question about the nature of that engagement. Did Tara Mines seek forms of assistance from Government in the past six months, including under the Ukraine enterprise crisis scheme, a scheme that the Taoiseach signed off on last year? We need to know what State supports the company sought and obtained. The company cannot be allowed to pull the plug on its workers.

At the very least, we need a concrete commitment that employees' existing terms and conditions will be retained when they go back to work in what we hope will be a very short time. Has the Government communicated that to the company yet? If not, will it do so?

We need to see a response on the short-term working scheme. We believe that this is the way in which the Government can very much step forward and offer concrete means of support to workers in the awful scenario of what we hope will be only a temporary layoff.

I thank the Deputy. We have had schemes of that nature in the past. We had the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the employment wage subsidy scheme. Those schemes were valuable at a particular point during the pandemic. They were also extremely expensive and cost billions of euros. There was a great deal of criticism of companies availing of the schemes at the time. Let us not forget that. This is not something that we rule out doing in the future, but it is not in our immediate plans. Let us not forget that many Members of the opposite benches were very critical of those schemes because, in many cases, profitable companies availed of them. We need to bear that and the fact that they came at a considerable cost to the taxpayer in mind.

I do not know if the company applied for the Ukraine energy crisis scheme. That scheme was established by the Government to help large companies with their energy costs. Companies can get several million euro from the scheme. I do not know if the company applied for that in this case. It is a fair question, and I will check that out. I understand, from what I have been told, that the scale of the losses the company was facing was so enormous that even a scheme like that would not been adequate.