Job losses in Irish industry have less to do with the ownership of enterprises than loss of competitiveness, the Tβnaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Ms Harney told the House.

There were many "originally indigenous companies" such as Iona, Trintech, CRH and the Kerry Group which were now multinational, she said. Ms Harney was responding to Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist, Dublin West) who said there was "a dangerous overdependence" in the State on multinationals given recent job losses at Celestica, Motorola, Dell, Gateway and Outokumpu (Tara Mines).

Between £30 million to £40 million in profits had been repatriated in the last five years, Mr Higgins said. "Does the Tβnaiste then believe it is moral that such companies should be able to dump thousands of Irish workers on the sidelines at the first sign of a tremor in international capitalist markets?"

Thousands of people worked in multinational foreign-owned companies, the Tβnaiste replied. "We live in a world that is much more open than before. When world growth and world trade was expanding in recent years, Ireland did extremely well in that context."

Mr Seβn Ryan (Labour, Dublin North) said the closure of Gateway in Clonshaugh with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs, another 1,000 job losses at Motorola in Swords, 55 at Dell in Poppintree, 60 at Electric World in Blanchardstown and Santry and 317 at Kylemore bakery in Finglas, on top of the projected 2,000 losses at Aer Lingus and 450 in Celestica in Swords, had devastated the economic life of north Dublin.

The Tβnaiste accepted there had been difficulties. "The IDA will continue to work with the company [Celestica] in consolidating their existing operations which will continue to employ 500 workers." She had established a training and jobs-placement initiative for north Dublin.

She was asked by Mr John Farrelly (Fine Gael, Meath) what steps were being taken to "source a replacement industry" at Tara Mines, should the closure there be long-term. Ministerial responsibility was a matter for the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, said Ms Harney, and she had not had discussions with the management. A meeting between the company and F┴S was scheduled to take place today.

Mr Trevor Sargent (Green, Dublin North) asked if VAT on research and development equipment would be lowered or even removed so that an indigenous R & D base could be consolidated in the Republic. One of the downsides of a low corporate tax regime, Ms Harney replied, was that it was often unattractive to carry out R & D where corporate taxes were low.