Martin urged to set up jobs task force in region

MINISTER for Enterprise Trade and Employment Micheál Martin must set up a task force to examine recent job losses in Waterford, Labour Party deputy Brian O’Shea has urged.

The party’s spokesperson on community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs said such a task force could play a crucial role in securing jobs and boosting the diversity of skills on offer in the county.

“I am calling on the minister to immediately put in place a team to examine what is happening in Waterford and come up with ways to assist in preserving jobs and in creating new jobs,” Mr O’Shea said.

The local TD was speaking following the announcement of a further 31 job losses in Waterford this week; 12 redundancies at Douglas Engineering on the IDA industrial estate and 19 job losses at Waterford Crystal’s Dungarvan plant.

The announcements are the latest in a string of redundancies in Waterford this year, with the loss of almost 200 jobs.

“While the numbers aren’t huge they are still very significant and everything possible must be done to protect employment in the Waterford constituency,” said Mr O’Shea. With most of the jobs lost to low-wage manufacturing economies abroad, he said a task force should look specifically at improving education opportunities in the area. In particular, he pointed to the role Waterford Institute of Technology has to play in sustaining employment.

“We need to advance matters at WIT to substantially expand its research and development capacity,” he said. “If we don’t move in that direction we are going to be in trouble.”

Mr O’Shea, a long-time advocate for university status for WIT, also called on FÁS to help improve the skills of those workers at risk of losing their jobs as well as those already hit by the recent cuts.

“I would see this task force as having a number of roles: to look at existing industry and see what can be done, and to look at expanding and increasing the product range on offer,” he said.

A spokesperson for Mr Martin said he had asked various government development agencies “to take appropriate measures to ensure that retraining and upskilling opportunities are available” to those affected by job losses in Waterford.