(Mayo): Last Thursday, 17 January, was another black day for the economy of County Mayo. Out of the blue came the announcement that 90 jobs would be lost at the Dawn Meats plant in Ballyhaunis. Within hours came the second sledgehammer blow – the announcement that the Henniges Elastomers plant in Ballina was to close with the loss of 220 jobs. In the case of Henniges, the statistics speak for themselves. Last year the company paid out £5 million in wages to an employment force manufacturing car components for some of Europe's top car manufacturers. The average age of the work force is 35 years. The work force is 80% male and 20% female. In the case of Dawn Meats in Ballyhaunis, the job losses are a direct consequence of the cattle cull arising from the BSE crisis. These are virtually all jobs filled by men and the annual wage loss to the economy is £1.6 million.
Henniges Elastomers was set up in 1989. It has an excellent work force and has won quality standard awards, best supplier awards and NSIO safety awards as the best company in the west for 1997, 1998 and 2000. Local management, unions and workers worked long and hard to try to get the costings correct and in line with international markets. The restructuring worked well but incredibly and ironically when the closure announcement came the company was at its most efficient and economic in its 11 year existence. However, the success achieved was not acknowledged by, or good enough, for the United States company bosses who looked at the long-term situation and profit margins.
The job losses in Ballina not only have dire and immediate consequences for the north Mayo region but are also an indicator for the economy as a whole. Irish wage inflation was given by the company as the official single most important reason for closing down the plant and relocating the jobs in eastern Europe. Whatever about the national economy, Mayo and western areas have not seen the fruits of the Celtic tiger. The Government and IDA so-called commitment to a greater regional dispersal of jobs is simply not there. If one wants proof of that one need look no further than the recently published IDA figures for last year. Of the 13,780 jobs announced nationally only 1,246 or 10% came to the seven western counties and half of these went to an already over-loaded and exploding Galway city. My understanding is that of the 600 remaining jobs scattered outside Galway city over the seven counties only a mere eight jobs came to County Mayo. All the talk, task forces and promises are not delivering in terms of creating jobs or staving off job losses.
A fragile economy like Ballina cannot sustain an annual wage loss of £5 million per annum. It is a mortal blow. Will the Minister of State say when exactly the Minister or the IDA learnt of the plans by Henniges to close its operation in Ballina? What contact did he, the Minister or the IDA have with the parent company? Did he or the Minister contact the company executives to give them assurances in relation to Government policy on wages and wage inflation? Was there any attempt to try to put together a rescue package to salvage all or some of the jobs or did the Government and the IDA simply hoist the white flag and accept the decision and consequences as inevitable?
The people of Ballina, north Mayo and the entire county are asking, what now and where do Ballina and Ballyhaunis go from here? What we need is action and jobs as a matter of urgency. There are issues of families' survival, mortgages and people's futures involved in these closures.
