Donegal Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

"Government failed thousands of Fruit of the Loom workers"- Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Published: 14 February, 2010

Note:


The Tánaiste has avoiding explaining why her Government failed Donegal workers despite receiving three parliamentary questions in October 2009 and a detailed letter sent to her in November 2009 (Copied below).



"Government failed thousands of Fruit of the Loom workers"- Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn


"Tánaiste still avoiding tough questions on the loss of millions in European funding"



Donegal Sinn Féin Councillor Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has again demanded that An Tánaiste, Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, Mary Coughlan explain why the Government she was a Minister in, failed to deliver millions of European funding from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to Fruit of the Loom workers in Donegal who had lost their jobs in 2006 and the years prior. He described the Government's failure at the time as a "scandal" and repeated his call for a special fund from Government to compensate the affected Donegal workers for their loss.



Cllr Mac Lochlainn said:


"I have now waited months for An Tánaiste to explain her Government's inaction in 2006. Her silence and repeated refusal to answer the tough questions shows that her Government failed thousands of Fruit of the Loom workers".


"In December 2005, The European Council agreed to introduce the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund with millions of euro in support for workers who had lost their jobs due to the global economy. Here in Donegal, the impact of Fruit of the Loom's decision to relocate their operations here to Morocco devastated the region with the loss of thousands of jobs in Malin Head, Milford, Raphoe, and Buncrana".


He continued:


"Despite the loss of thousands of textile jobs at Fruit of the Loom and the announcement by the company in late 2005, that they were wrapping up operations in Donegal ahead of the timeframe they had earlier outlined, resulting in hundreds of early redundancies through 2006, the Government failed to ensure that the EGF would apply to the Donegal workers before it came into statute in late 2006. The scale of the Government's remarkable neglect of the Donegal workers is demonstrated by the fact that the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, Micháel Martin came to Donegal in July 2006 to launch his much trumpeted "Interdepartmental Report" aimed at addressing Donegal's ongoing economic crisis at the time. Flanked by Mary Coughlan and the other Donegal Fianna Fáil deputies, he assured us that they were focused on addressing our needs. We now know that Donegal wasn't a priority for them at all".


"It is estimated that the 1,900 workers who lost their jobs at the Dell plant in Limerick in recent times will now benefit from around €5,000 each from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for retraining and new business start-ups. €15 million euro in total has been allocated to the former Dell workers. I genuinely wish them well. However, workers in Donegal should have enjoyed the same assistance. The construction boom or bubble as it is now seen, buffered Donegal from the immediate impact of the Fruit of the Loom departure but many of those employed at the textile giant are now on the dole queues and the Government must now compensate them and give them the supports they deserve"


ENDS



Dear Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment,

As you will be aware, I have recently submitted a number of parliamentary questions: (Parliamentary Question Nos. 80 and 81 of 13 October 2009 , and Parliamentary Question No. 195 of 20 October 2009, for your attention, seeking to ascertain what efforts the Government made with their European partners to ensure that the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) would be of benefit to the thousands of Donegal workers who had lost their jobs in the local textile industry.

As a Donegal based TD, you will be aware of the devastating impact of the collapse of the textile industry in your county from the huge multinationals like Fruit of the Loom to the numerous textile SMEs. In response to my parliamentary questions you have stated that the relevant EGF regulation came into being in late 2006 and that those thousands of Donegal workers who had lost their jobs during that year and in the years prior to the regulation, were not eligible for support under the fund.

Those workers, of course, now know that they will not be able to avail of support from the EGF. What those workers want to know and what I now urgently seek clarification from you again on is as follows; from the period that the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund was agreed at the European Council meeting of December 2005 to the passing of the EGF regulation at the European Council meeting in December 2006, what interventions the Irish Government made to ensure that the fund applied to the thousands of workers who had lost their jobs in the textile industry, including Fruit of the Loom, in County Donegal?

Tánaiste, in case there would be any confusion about the chronological sequence of events leading to the formation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, I quote from the actual text of the official European Union website setting the context for the EGF.

"The idea of the EGF was spawned by a Commission Report of 20 October 2005 entitled "European values in a globalised world". Whilst stressing the benefits in this report of opening the European economy up to the world, the Commission also highlighted the negative impact which this same opening up could have on some of its workers and the need to come up with an effective response on a European scale. It is in this context that the President of the Commission, Mr José Manuel Barroso, suggested in a letter addressed to all the EU Heads of State or Government and to the European Parliament that such a fund be set up. This was approved at the European Council of December 2005".


Why do the workers seek answers to this question?

In November, 2005, just prior to the establishment of this fund, Fruit of the Loom announced that they would wind down operations in Donegal and that their remaining 500 employees in Donegal would be made redundant in 2006, ahead of the scheduled period outlined previously by the company.

Indeed, during the period in question, Minister Micheál Martin, the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment launched the Government's Inter Departmental Group (IDG) Report on Donegal, on Thursday 27th July 2006. This report was launched in response to the then recent huge job losses in Donegal and sought to improve the attractiveness of the county for investment and enterprise.

The Government of that time, of which you were a Minister, apparently failed to ensure that the EGF, a solidarity fund with a budget of 500 million euro per annum, designed to assist redundant workers in regions affected by the negative consequences of the global economy, would apply to the thousands of redundant textile workers in Donegal.

Tánaiste, as you are also aware, the numbers of Donegal people on the dole queues is now over 20,000. Over one in four Donegal workers are now signing on. Many of those were made redundant in the textile industry over the last decade. Due to the Government's apparent incompetence, those workers cannot avail of the crucial supports from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. I now appeal to you to establish a special retraining fund and support fund for those Donegal workers to compensate for the Government's failure, similar to the benefits of the EGF fund, now being attained by the former Dell employees in Limerick and surrounding areas.

This is only fair in the circumstances.

Is mise, etc