Irish Ferries deal to lay off workers may cost you €7m

IRISH FERRIES is seeking €7 million from the taxpayer to cover the statutory cost of laying off 500 of its Irish workers.

With the company’s bitter dispute with SIPTU resolved, plans to replace 543 Irish staff with cheaper agency crews from Eastern Europe are proceeding quickly.

As part of that process the company this week informed the Department of Enterprise that it is proceeding with its redundancy plan, a large portion of which the company believes should qualify for a Government rebate.