Northern Assembly Deputy first minister briefed on Tallaght jobs crisis

Sinn Féin MP, MLA and Deputy First Minister of the Northern Assembly Martin
McGuiness visited Dublin South West today on a tour or the constituency.
Minister McGuiness met with community groups, Sinn Féin activists and hundreds
of voters in Tallaght today. In particular the Deputy first minister was briefed on the
growing jobs crisis in Tallaght when he made a symbolic stop at the closed Jacobs
Biscuit plant in Tallaght.

In a statement, Seán Crowe, Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Dublin South West
constituency and local Tallaght councillor said that, “Jobs creation and retention is the
key to a better quality of life for all in Dublin South West”

Councillor Crowe said, “Unemployment has risen year on year in Tallaght since the
middle of the last decade with little effective government action to tackle this crisis.
The live register figures for Tallaght were rising from 2006 to the high of more than
10,000 today”

“The decline of local manufacturing industry and the closure of plants such as
Packard, Gallagher’s and Jacobs are just some examples of the slow decline of the
local economy”.

“The case of Jacobs Fruitfield is particularly pertinent, the brands they made in
Tallaght are still on sale in shops but the manufacturing has moved out of Ireland. The
enterprise agencies and successive governments did nothing for these high volume
local profit margin businesses that are vital for local jobs.”

“Jacobs did have outdated plant but other costs such as energy, commercial rates
and business insurance rose year on year with no action taken by government. When
Jacobs decided to shut the Tallaght plant the development potential of the land was
deemed more valuable than the jobs. Now the land is worthless and these jobs are not
coming back”.

“We need a structured response to develop the local manufacturing industries
particularly food as Dublin is the largest market on the island yet we import food from
other economies when it could be made here. There are local success stories such as
Origin foods who make the Odlums and Shamrock range brands and on the North side
of the city Largo Foods who produce Hunky Dory and Tayto crisps show that it is
possible to keep brands and jobs in Ireland”.