Waterford Crystal bail-out opposed

THE request by troubled Waterford Crystal for a €39 million bail-out has caused divisions within the Government.

A report in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post said that although 550 jobs were riding on the emergency funding, several ministers were opposed to the money being handed over.

The report reiterates the view that giving Waterford Crystal the money would set a precedent, given that the State had abandoned that practice many years ago.

Enterprise Ireland, the state development agency, is also understood to have opposed the funding in its advice to the Cabinet, arguing that the money could be better invested in grants aiding younger companies with better prospects ahead of them than the long- suffering crystal group.

Without the funding, the remaining 550 jobs in Waterford Crystal will go.

In recent years billionaire business man Tony O’Reilly and his brother-in -law Peter Goulandris have invested close to €400m trying to rescue the group, which has suffered badly from the demise of the dollar in recent years.