Donegal job haemorrhage continues

BY

JUSTIN MORAN

In the second blow to Donegal in as many weeks the Clubman Omega shirt factory has announced its closure after 20 years of operation with the loss of 67 jobs.

The company, which at its peak employed almost 200 people from the area, intends to move its manufacturing facilities to Lithuania, citing 'unacceptably high costs of production' as the explanation for the move.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, SIPTU Donegal branch official Declan Ferry admitted that the announcement was not a surprise, but workers were still in a state of shock. "In fairness many of these workers have been on short-time for a while now, there have been a spate of redundancies over the last few years and the company lost a major contract before the summer so it is not a surprise as such, but workers are still in a state of shock."

The future for many of these workers, including a large number of young women, is not promising. "There is nothing left in Buncrana anymore when it comes to manufacturing," Mr Ferry pointed out. "The whole Inishowen Peninsula is a disaster area. Coming after the Hospira closure it is just one thing after another for Donegal."

Buncrana Sinn Féin Councillor Darren Lalor accused the government of a complete failure of political leadership. "We have no shortage of Government Ministers in this county but the best Cecilia Keaveny can propose is to decentralise jobs from elsewhere," Cllr Lalor pointed out. "That is not creating new jobs, that's simply transferring old ones. Where is the investment in broadband communications and new technology we so desperately need?"