900 jobs to go at Quinn Insurance

Joint administrators of Quinn Insurance have announced 900 voluntary redundancies over a 12-month period.

Some 350 employees will be affected across all locations in the first phase of the process.

In a personal statement, Sean Quinn said: "Both myself and my family are devastated with today’s announcement of impending redundancies at Quinn Insurance.

"I would like to sincerely express my appreciation of the huge effort that staff have made in making Quinn Insurance the great success that it has been and I greatly regret what has happened in recent weeks.

"At the Group board meeting this week we decided that given the developing situation it was in the best interest of Quinn Insurance that we would offer it for sale so as to protect the business and maintain the maximum number of jobs within it.

"I just hope that in time the company will return to the dynamic business it was up until the 30th March and that employment levels will increase again in the future. Our thoughts are with all of the staff today."

meanwhile, employees said in a statement before today's announcement that "We strongly believe that these are unnecessary job losses... The regulator is suffocating Quinn Insurance and directly impeding our ability to compete in the UK / NI markets.

" We call for the regulator to immediately reintroduce the full NI/UK market and without the pricing restrictions."

Minister for Enterprise Batt O'Keeffe said the announcement was "devastating for the workers and their families".

"I want to make it clear to the communities affected that the Government wants to see Quinn Insurance continue as a viable and sustainable insurance business for the sake of its policyholders, employees and competition in the insurance industry here.

"The company’s future as a going concern is being safeguarded through the administration process under the supervision of the High Court.

"The statutory role of the administrators is to secure the long-term viability of the company by putting it back on a sound commercial and financial footing and ensuring that it fully meets all its regulatory requirements."