Castlebar Town Council call for Elverys intervention

Castlebar Town Council call for Elverys intervention


Ciara Galvin

MEMBERS of Castlebar Town Council expressed grave concerns over the future of Castlebar-based company Elverys at its March meeting.
The council proposed to write to An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to intervene in the ongoing matter and to ask them to give a directive to the examiner and NAMA to sell the company to the local management structure.
The current threat to 700 jobs nationwide, including 167 jobs in Castlebar was discussed at length.
Fine Gael Councillor Eugene McCormack said the examiner must look at not just the financial cost when selling the company, but also the ‘social cost’, adding that he hoped the existing management were successful bidders.
Describing the possible loss of jobs in the town as a ‘jobs bombshell’, Labour Councillor Harry Barrett told the chamber the loss of the 167 jobs would cost the government €5million per year. Cllr Barrett proposed that the council contact the competition authority in relation to a potential bidder.
Speaking about potential bidder Mike Ashley, owner of UK based sports company SportsDirect.com, Fine Gael Councillor Brendan Henaghan said Mr Ashley was ‘not a popular man’ and wants to relocate jobs to the UK. Heneghan added that he hoped the local management team would ‘close the deal for the welfare of workers’.
Outspoken Independent Councillor Frank Durcan told the chamber that they were not just talking about 700 jobs, but highlighted that each person employed by Elverys had an average of two dependants and a loss of jobs would result in entire families emigrating from the town.
Durcan said it was up to the government to save the jobs and said it was ‘payback’ for An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to help the people in his constituency that elected him.
Fine Gael Councillor and parliamentary secretary to An Taoiseach, Cllr Ger Deere said a message should go out that there was ‘only one show in town’ and that that was ‘the management buy-out’. “We can’t let it go to vulture capitalists,” added Cllr Deere.  
Independent Councillor Michael Kilcoyne said the state owned AIB and NAMA, and because AIB forced the company into examinership, it was therefore the government that caused the problem and was their job to direct the sale of the company to the local management team.
“It [local management] is the only one that has said it will protect jobs and keep the headquarters in Castlebar,”said Kilcoyne.