Loss of Jacobs jobs huge blow to local community - Crowe
Published: 25 January, 2008
Responding to news that the Jacobs Fruitfield factory in Tallaght is to close with the loss of 220 jobs Sinn Féin representative Seán Crowe said this will be a huge blow to the local area and rejected company's excuse tha outdated equipment is making the facility uncompetitive claiming that the money from the sale of the Jacobs site at Whitestown Industrial Estate was to go towards maintaining both the jobs and the facilities at Tallaght.
Speaking today Crowe said, "The scandal in all of this is that when the
Jacobs factory at Whitestown was being sold South Dublin County
councillors rezoned the land to housing on the basis that the profits
made on the site would directly reinvested into maintaining facilities
and safeguarding the existing jobs at the Belgard factory. This money
has not been invested and therefore the argument from the company that
the factory is uncompetitive due to outdated equipment does not stand
up. The money from Whitestown should have provided this factory with
top quality equipment.
"The loss of these jobs will be a huge blow to the local Tallaght
community. The employees at Jacobs have been a loyal and hardworking
workforce that has served the company and this community for decades.
"For years the Government has being promising action to stop the loss of
jobs in the manufacturing sector yet these have proven to be empty
promises. The loss of these jobs will bring unemployment in Tallaght
very close to the 4,000 mark the second highest area in Dublin with the
fastest growing unemployment levels.
"This latest loss of jobs is another in a long line of job losses in the
area such as the losses at Loctite, APW, Packard, Gallaghers, and
Sujitsu.
"The Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Mícheál Martin must
now come up with a new initiative to halt the steady decline of
traditional jobs not only in Tallaght but in the rest of the state as
well. These jobs need to be replaced with good quality, well paid
alternatives. This will have to involve re-training and up-skilling of
workers to work in new enterprises.
"Sinn Féin will be raising this latest jobs crisis in Tallaght with
Minister Martin in the Dáil next week."
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