Cllr Kenny will talk to Taoiseach about Elvery’s future

Cllr Kenny will talk to Taoiseach about Elverys future


Áine Ryan

THE TAOISEACH’s brother will highlight the concerns of Elverys workers to Enda Kenny in light of issues raised about the future of the company at yesterday’s Mayo County Council meeting in Áras an Chontae.
During an impassioned debate, attended by a delegation from the company which is in examinership, Cllr Henry Kenny said: “I want to assure the workers here today that I will bring their concerns directly to the Taoiseach and that I, and he, will be supportive of your cause.”
He was speaking during a debate which culminated in councillors formally calling on Nama (National Assets Management Agency) and the Elverys examiner to sell the company, which employs around 180 people in Mayo and almost 700 nationwide, to a local management group, led by Mr Patrick Rowland. The proposal was put by Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne, who argued that of the six tenders for the sports business, this group was the only one that would protect all the jobs.
“It is much easier to hold 200 jobs than to create them, ” Cllr Kilcoyne said.
Earlier Fine Gael’s Cllr Cyril Burke had proposed that the council write to Nama and the examiner, Simon Coyle ‘to look for their support to protect the jobs’.
Fianna FΡil’s Cllr Blackie Gavin said: “This is a very serious issue for Castlebar with over 120 jobs in jeopardy at the town’s plant. The Staunton family built this business up and opened a fine shop on Main Street. It is time we stood up in this town and told Nama ‘enough is enough’. These jobs are crucial for Castlebar.”
His party colleague, Cllr Al McDonnell said he felt strongly that ‘management and ownership should stay within the town and county where 180 of the 700 jobs exist’.
Observing that Castlebar would soon be ‘a ghost town’ with ‘25 shops closed’ on the town’s main thoroughfare, outspoken Independent Cllr Frank Durcan said: “This is the Taoiseach’s town and on his shoulders it rests. If foreign investors came into the town they would be greeted but local businesses are not respected.”
“We cannot stand idly by and see all the foreign investors coming into this country and snapping up businesses at a fraction of their value,” he said.
Sinn Féin’s Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh said there were facilities for the Minister for Finance to advise Nama regarding such businesses which had sustainable futures.
Calling on the Taoiseach to intervene, her party colleague, Cllr Gerry Murray said: “These people are not being asked to be bailed-out but to be given an opportunity to salvage their jobs.”
Ballina Independent Cllr Gerry Ginty said if this was happening in Limerick, ‘Minister Michael Noonan would resolve it with one stroke of a pen’.
“Nama wasn’t set up to strip the assets of Irish companies for them to be sold to foreign companies. Nobody is willing to shout stop,” he said.

Political football
Fine Gael Erris Cllr Gerry Coyle urged councillors not to make ‘a political football out of the issue’.
“There isn’t a person here who doesn’t support jobs. People need to very careful this doesn’t end  up in the courts because some of the underbidders could take a case here.”
Under the advice of County manager, Peter Hynes, councillors amended the wording of the proposal to avoid a possible legal challenge.
Cllr Margaret Adams said ‘the workers must be helped in a unified way’ by councillors.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Diarmuid Byrne, who said he had worked with Elverys for 21 years, needed to ‘see unity from within the chamber’.
“The management structure put in place has guaranteed the jobs will stay in place and nobody else has guaranteed that,” Mr Byrne said.