O'Keeffe to pledge support for threatened Quinn staff
Enterprise Minister Batt O’Keeffe will tomorrow meet worker representatives from Quinn Insurance to pledge support to staff facing redundancy.
Some 900 job losses were announced on Friday as former billionaire tycoon Sean Quinn revealed plans to sell his flagship insurance company.
Administrators appointed to beleaguered Quinn Insurance said the massive cuts - hitting more than a third of the company’s 2,400-strong workforce – were needed to safeguard the business’s future.
Mr O’Keeffe said: “Tomorrow, I will reiterate my pledge that, as a Government, we will do all in our power to help those workers who lose their jobs to find new ones.
“At a meeting on Friday evening, the administrators made it clear to me that Quinn Insurance has a viable future and that they will work to put the company back on a sound commercial and financial footing and ensure that it fully meets all its regulatory requirements.”
Mr Quinn said he and his family were devastated by the job losses.
The biggest cuts will be at Quinn Insurance’s office in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, which will see just over 300 redundancies.
Around 226 jobs are set to be cut in Cavan, with 179 redundancies in Enniskillen and 109 staff expected to be let go in Navan.
Further redundancies are planned in the Derrylin claims division in Co Fermanagh, the O’Connell Street branch in Dublin and English offices in Manchester and London.
Mr O’Keeffe said he will shortly be announcing the appointment of a chairperson of an inter-agency team who will co-ordinate the activities of the relevant State job creation and training agencies which will help the affected staff.
The meeting will take place in Cavan and the minister will also joined by Agriculture Minister and local TD Brendan Smith.
Earlier today Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and north-west MEP Jim Higgins met with worker representatives.
