Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Michael Noonan, claimed last night that Moulinex in France, the owner of Krups, allowed the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, to choose between the closure at the Limerick plant and the possible closure of Krups in Thurles.
The closure of the Limerick plant with the loss of 500 permanent jobs was announed on Friday. Mr Noonan said there was an allegation that Ms Harney and her IDA advisers were offered the choice of closing Thurles or Limerick and that "the Irish participants opted for the Limerick choice".
Raising the issue on the adjournment, the Limerick deputy wanted to know when the Tanaiste knew that Krups was going to close and what action she took to forestall the closure. He asked if it was true that "she visited the headquarters of Moulinex in France several weeks ago to discuss the closure and that in the course of these discussions she was allowed to participate in organising the arrangements for closure?"
He called for a proper redundancy scheme for workers to bridge the gap between closure and re-employment. Mr Noel Treacy, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, answering for the Tanaiste, said Ms Harney had met senior representatives of the Moulinex group in Paris last May and had lobbied for both plants to remain open.
He said the company had decided that it was no longer economically viable to have two plants in Ireland and Thurles had been chosen to remain open.