Reply to Deputy John Brown over Redundancies in Wexorod Local Development
Issued : Wednesday 8 July, 2009
I would like to comment on the piece in last week’s issue of the Wexford Echo by David Looby entitled ‘Tense wait by workers’ which referred to the redundancies in Wexford Local Development. As a public representative and a worker myself in Wexford Local Development,
I was surprised to hear the comments by the former minister Mr. John Brown in relation to the issue in the partnership company. Instead, of addressing the matter of the cut to funding of € 194,000 (in addition to € 163,000 in the December budget) that is the sole reason for the proposal to cut up to 12 jobs or at the very least to use their influence to give the company the means to give those about to be laid off a decent redundancy package!
He in indulges in muddying of the waters along with a bit of union bashing, as if the management and union were the cause of this deplorable state of affairs. I would remain Deputy Brown that the ‘raison d'être ’ in setting up the partnership companies was to address, unemployment, social exclusion, and the other social ills that have been the scourge of so many of our citizens in both town and county. Most commentators agree that the only way we are going to find our way out of this recession is to invest in retraining , further education and job recreation; not in closing down the very agencies set up to do this job in the first place. If there was ever a time when we needed partnership companies it is at this time when we are haemorrhaging jobs at the rate of knots. One still hears that much abused phrase that is being spewed by out by government spoke people ‘protecting the vulnerable’ while at the same time putting the boot in to the less well off at every opportunity.
Finally in relation to job creation, our two FF government deputies would be better earning their large salaries by looking at why it has taken over seven years to process the planning application which has been devilled by objections, problems over granting of Foreshore Licences and the like? I refer to the site at Trinity St (formally Wexford Electronix) where I worked myself and which was acquired by Deerland Properties and which has the potential to provide many hundreds of jobs.
