‘We’re on the scrap heap and things aren’t looking good’
“If you die at 46, people would say you were in your prime.
“But if you go looking for a job at that age, then you’d be told you’re too old,” Pat Murray said.
Mr Murray, a 46-year-old separated father with five children, walked out of the Marino Point plant in Cobh for the last time yesterday.
After 23 years as a maintenance fitter he said he felt anger and sadness.
“The redundancy package they’re offering won’t even work out as a year’s wages.
“I don’t just blame Mary Harney, I blame the whole Government,” Mr Murray said.
He said the proceeds of Fianna Fáil’s fundraiser in the Silver Springs Hotel last night would “keep me and my children in food for a long time”.
“I went to say goodbye and good luck to people today who were nearly crying. It was a great job and a great workforce. Now we’re on the scrap heap and things aren’t looking good.”
Father-of-three Sean Beausang worked for IFI for 25 years.
“The redundancy package is disgraceful. There’s also a sense of uncertainty as to when any of it will be paid.
I used to vote for Fianna Fáil, but I’ll never do that again,” Mr Beausang said.
More than 130 of the 200-strong workforce were let go in Cobh yesterday but Mr Beausang, a process operator in the ammonia plant, may be kept on for a few more weeks until final closure.
Instrument technician John McCarthy, 48, has three children, one of whom has Down's Syndrome.
“Financially, it’s going to be very hard, but everyone’s in the same boat as me,” Mr McCarthy said.
He said workers would sit in at the plant if they are not paid redundancy pay of five-and-a-half weeks per year of service.
Des McKee, 59, worked for IFI for 28 years as company project manager.
“I thought I’d finish my working days there. I feel very much for the younger men who have big mortgages and young families,” he said.
