Issued : Thursday 9 September, 2010

Labour Party Councillor for Bandon, Gearóid Buckley has expressed concern at the news that there maybe significant job losses at the Schering-Plough manufacturing operation in Brinny, West Cork.

Speaking at the Annual Conference of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI) Cllr. Buckley said, ‘First and foremost my sympathies are with the employees who will be told today that they will have to seek employment elsewhere. The immediate priority must be to ensure an adequate and beneficial redundancy package for these staff.

‘Schering-Plough has been a major employer in the Bandon/Innishannon for many years. Following recent job losses in the area, with the closure of Fleming Construction and the re-location of Newsweaver, there is now a real danger of the area becoming an unemployment black-spot. When the impact of the loss of purchasing power and ancillary employment is taken into consideration, the economic impact will be severe for the area.

‘Unfortunately these job losses are part of a wider trend in the Irish economy whereby traditional manufacturing jobs are being lost with no new ones becoming available. It is time for the Minister Batt O’Keeffe to intervene – after all, these job losses are in his own backyard. Prompt intervention on the part of the so called Minister for Enterprise & Innovation could yet result in at least some of these jobs being saved.

‘The Government must begin a two-pronged approach to creating jobs. It must start actively attracting large international manufacturing companies to locate in Ireland to ensure more jobs in the manufacturing sector are available. But it must also ensure that supports are put in place to encourage entrepreneurship andsustainable job creation in local communities.

‘We have now had fourteen months in succession where the Live Register numbers have been in excess of 400,000 yet it is evident that unemployment remains very low on the government’s list of political priorities. It is time that the government started treating unemployment with the seriousness it deserves.’