AN Inishowen councillor
has called for immediate investment in the West of
Ireland following the announcement that 500 jobs are
to go at the Abbott plant in Galway.
Cllr. Padraig MacLochlainn said he hoped the jobs of
around 50 employees at the company's plant in
Donegal Town were safe.
“We recently had the launch of the IDA report 2006
which included Abbott as an investment highlight of
last year. The loss of 500 jobs shows how
unreliable this kind of investment can be.
"This announcement is also badly timed, with only
three weeks to go until Christmas. We can only hope
that this is the sum total of the cuts and that the
rest of the 3,000 Abbott jobs around the country are
still safe," said Cllr. MacLochlainn.
The Buncrana-based councillor said Donegal and the
West could not absorb such a volume of job cuts.
“The West cannot sustain job losses and yet the
Government refuses to build any kind of
infrastructure that would attract new jobs to this
part of the country.
"There needs to be a co-ordinated strategy to tackle
unemployment and ensure that investment into Galway
and the West as a whole is prioritised by the
Government.” |
