Ferry firm urged to halt axing of 543 jobs

Irish Ferries should halt its plan to axe more than 500 jobs on services to Britain until new Government supports are put in place, it was claimed today.

Minister of State for the Marine Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher said he was looking into the provision of tax breaks to aid the company.

“I have made a case to the Department of Finance to retain the tax concessions that are there and in addition to that to consider a PAYE refund to the owners. This is acceptable generally in Brussels and it’s in place in Finland and Italy,” he said.

A total of 543 Irish Ferries employees on services to Wales have been offered voluntary redundancy. Those who remain will be forced to take pay cuts and abide by strict new working conditions already in force on ferries serving France.

Mr Gallagher said the proposed redundancies would have grave consequences for the Irish seafaring industry and urged Irish Ferries to await the Government’s decision on a report from the Irish Maritime Development Office.

“I believe that if we are to overcome the difficulties that we have, we have to extend these (tax concessions) and I’m calling on the company now not to implement these measures until such time, and I think it’s only fair that my Government and the Department of Finance have an opportunity to consider all of these.”

He told RTE radio that the news of the company’s decision had come as a major surprise to him and added that he was extremely concerned for the futures of the workers affected.

Irish Ferries have blamed the huge cuts on rising operating costs with fuel expenses alone up by 50% in 2005.

Management claimed the situation on services between Dublin and Holyhead and Rosslare and Pembroke had deteriorated in the last year with a 9% drop in the number of car passengers.

But SIPTU claimed management were attempting to boost profits by taking on cheap labour from Eastern Europe and described the redundancies as an exercise in pure greed.

The union has served two weeks strike notice on the company.

Earlier this year a dispute was sparked on the Irish Ferries MV Normandy service to France after the company began outsourcing crew on cheaper wages leading to a strike and blockades of ports.