Tommy Broughan TD

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Tanaiste Must Act Now To Protect Cadbury Jobs

Issued : Wednesday 3 February, 2010

Dublin North East Labour T.D. Tommy Broughan has called on the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan to immediately meet with Kraft the new owners of Cadbury Ireland on the protection of up to 1200 jobs at the Cadbury plants in Coolock, Dublin 17 and Rathmore, Co. Kerry.

Deputy Broughan said, "The 1200 Cadbury workers are rightly extremely anxious about the Kraft takeover which was confirmed yesterday. Kraft’s massive debts have been estimated at as much as £22 billion. It has also been suggested that 7,000 Cadbury jobs across the company may be at risk through any Kraft cost-cutting plan.

"I understand that in the UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson arranged to meet Kraft CEO Ms. Irene Rosenfeld within hours of the Cadbury deal. Yet Tanaiste and Enterprise Minister Coughlan appears to have no definite plans to address the matter.

"The Tanaiste and her colleagues were disgracefully lethargic when it came to protecting jobs at a number of other critical manufacturing plants including SR Technics, Waterford Crystal and Dell. Given the increase of 13,000 increase in Live Register figures for January, it would be unthinkable for the Fianna Fail/Green government to ignore the risk to a further 1200 jobs in North Dublin and Kerry. In Dail Eireann this morning I asked Taoiseach Cowen to direct the Tanaiste to meet with Kraft management instead of waiting till after jobs are lost as is usually the case with this Tanaiste.

"Cadbury employees and their representatives have also suggested that strict guarantees are put in place for a five year period to avoid the introduction of compulsory redundancies and to protect current terms and conditions for staff. Tanaiste Coughlan must now urgently meet Kraft management to discuss these proposals and their plans for the Cadbury plants in Coolock and Rathmore."