Harney gives assurance on jobs priority for Donegal

IN the aftermath of the Fruit of the Loom jobs’ bombshell nearly six years ago, Tanaiste Mary Harney offered words of comfort to the 1,500 facing the dole.

Priority attention, she emphasised, would be “focused on Donegal as a prime, competitive and attractive location for job creating investment.”

The words were as feeble as the State’s response to the Fruit of the Loom disaster.

Some 90% of Fruit of the Loom employees were women and the majority - once dreaming of a job for life - never worked again.

Workers at the condemned Unifi plant in Letterkenny can be forgiven if they don’t show the same ebullience as Ms Harney on the prospect of getting back into the workforce.

In her dual role as Tanaiste and Enterprise Minister, she said yesterday: “We hope we will be successful in clinching an industry for Donegal which will replace the one just lost.”

Independent Fianna Fail TD Niall Blaney was certainly not impressed by the Tanaiste’s assurances on new jobs for the north-west.

“Donegal,” he said, “has more incentives than most counties to attract industry but the message is just not getting through. The problem is at the top.”

Deputy Blaney said the Task Force Report, drawn up after the Fruit of the Loom job losses in the county was no more than “an exercise with no muscle behind it.”

At its peak, Fruit of the Loom employed more than 2,800 in Donegal and Derry but, over the past five years, nearly all of the remaining manufacturing jobs in towns such as Malin, Milford, Raphoe and Buncrana were transferred to low labour cost countries such as Morocco.

In 1998, when 800 Fruit of the Loom workers lost their jobs at Christmas, the company’s wage bill in the county was in excess of £25 million (€32m). Over £19m (€24m) was given in grant aid to the company.

Letterkenny’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Eamon Stevenson is anxious another Fruit of the Loom debacle is avoided.

Calling for immediate action from the relevant agencies, he said a structured approach was needed to tackle the blatantly obvious employment crisis in Donegal.