THE IDA will have to await the decision of insurance giant Aviva on its future before getting involved, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said, in the wake of threats to up to 500 job losses at the company.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil yesterday that he had not been in touch with Aviva’s management, which had said it was going through a restructuring phase. “The IDA, who are in contact with Aviva, cannot make any sort of judgment about the future until such time as the company itself makes its own decisions in respect of its review, which it is carrying out.”

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Taoiseach: “I don’t accept your position that you have had no contact with Aviva. You pass the buck to the IDA. Hundreds of jobs are now under threat. What will you do about it? It is not sufficient to pass the buck to another agency.”

The Dublin Central TD added: “If you are so appalled, if you are so concerned to keep people in work and get people back to work, get cracking now and make sure those jobs in Aviva are secured and match your rhetoric with action.”

Mr Kenny said: “The Government has been cracking since we were appointed and given a mandate by the people. That’s why we called back all the ambassadors and diplomatic people around the world. That’s why the Tánaiste today is in New York, the Minister for Enterprise and Innovation and Jobs is in the United States.

“That’s why we have had direct contact with businesses both at home and abroad to rebuild this country’s reputation.”

He said an employer had told him that pay rates in her place of employment were between €9.50 and €11 an hour, but after advertising and interviewing three times, not one Irish person could be taken on to work there.

Mr Kenny added: “I sympathise with every person who is unemployed, as people want to work. There are some cultures within Irish society which must be shaken up because we are facing a new reality. We are not our own economic masters.”