The announcement that there will be a further 285 redundancies at Liberty Mutual Insurance will have grave consequences for the border areas and raises serious questions about statements by the Minister for Finance, Mr. Michael Noonan, that there would be minimal jobs losses in the disposal of Quinn Insurance.

She said:- “On the day that receivers were sent in to the Quinn Group the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the deal was ‘a good news story  for the workers and border region...the fact that all the jobs are protected, the same spend will be going on through the community up there... It is particularly important that there will be no impact on employment.   I welcome the position of the proposed agreement in that almost all 1,500 jobs in Quinn Insurance will be retained’.

“In the Dail, referring to the disposal of Quinn Insurance, to Liberty Mutual, the Minister said ‘another factor in their decision to go with the Liberty Mutual/Anglo proposal is the fact that virtually all of the jobs are protected aside from 24 redundancies in Manchester.  I have been informed however that the decision to appoint a share receiver will have no significant impact on jobs in the wider Quinn Group’.

The continued job losses in the former Quinn Insurance company, now amounting to 1,185 in total, reveals the Government’s total understatement of the consequences of breaking up the Quinn Group and raises questions about its refusal to consider the Quinn Groups own proposals for restructuring the Group.

“The Minister must now institute an immediate evaluation of the current position of all of the former Quinn Group companies and ascertain the intentions of the current owners, if they can be identified.  The border areas cannot sustain any more shock announcements from Liberty Mutual or from the owners of former Quinn Group companies which could be disposed of at any time.

“The Government which was so bullish about removing the Quinn family involvement in the Quinn Group must now face up to the consequences including the cost to the State of the 1,185 jobs lost which could now cost the State in excess of €12 million per annum dependent on how many of the redundant workers will be able to secure alternative employment”, Marian Harkin MEP concluded.