Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said he could not provide reassurances to employees in Aughinish Alumina in Co Limerick about the future of their jobs.
Asked if he could give guarantees to workers he said: “Obviously it is a very challenging circumstance. The company is still operating. At the moment no decision has been taken”.
“I can’t give any reassurances in any regard. This is a European issue,” Mr Burke said.
“Europe has policy responsibility for sanctions we must remember that. And they have to take a very significant decision in that regard,” he added.
Minister Burke also said that there has been no Government discussions about the nationalisation of Aughinish Alumina.
He said Ireland had never lobbied to have the Co Limerick company excluded from any EU sanction packages.
He said he would not tolerate any product from the company ending up in the Russian military complex.
The Department of Enterprise is investigating whether Russian-owned Aughinish Alumina, which is an alumina refinery, is making products which is ending up in Russian military equipment.
“Critically, Ireland had supported ‘Ukraine first’ in 20 packages of sanctions against Russia,” the Minister said.
He said there were about 1,000 workers in the company’s supply chain and about 900 more in the wider economy.
“But we all meet challenges and we have to respond to those challenges with our values at our core as a country,” he said.
“That is very important to me as a minister – Ireland’s reputation. We have to work to try to respond to this collectively as the European Union,” he added.
The Minister said the investigation the Department of Enterprise would try to ascertain the facts and stress test them.
He added that the investigation would assess whether the company had broken existing EU sanctions.
He said he expected the report from the Department imminently.
Minister Burke was speaking to journalists at the fringes of informal meeting of EU competition ministers in Dublin Castle.
