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Arklow needs Govt action to bring jobs - Chliders

Childers discusses job creation and need for assistance with Arklow business leaders

“I specifically raised the case of Arklow and Allergan with [EU Employment Commissioner Spidla]... 360 lost jobs have a huge impact on a community like Arklow, and I asked him to change the rules so that we could take advantage of the funds available.” Nessa Childers, Labour’s MEP candidate in Ireland East (Leinster) is today meeting with business leaders in Arklow, Co Wicklow, to discuss the fallout from the closure of the Allergan plant and the need for new job creation initiatives in south Wicklow. She met with Mayor Nicky Kelly, Arklow Business Enterprise Centre and Arklow & District Chamber of Commerce.

“Arklow is now heading towards 25% unemployment following the closure of Allergan and the continuing trend of job losses in the construction sector. That would be devastating for the town, and the whole south of the county. Urgent help is needed for Arklow and other towns like it. The EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund has been created to help those who lose their jobs due to the effects of globalisation. I met with the Employment Commissioner, Vladimir Spidla, who is in charge of the fund, in Brussels recently. I specifically raised the case of Arklow and Allergan with him. I asked that he reconsider the rules for accessing the Globalisation Fund. 360 lost jobs have a huge impact on a community like Arklow, and I asked him to change the rules so that we could take advantage of the funds available.

“The Commissioner accepted my points, and agreed that he would try to put together new rules for the Globalisation Fund. He said that he would consider reducing the scale of job losses required to qualify, and would also try to reduce the portion that national Governments would need to contribute.

“It’s now up to our Government here in Ireland to take advantage of the new rules the minute they’re in place. Arklow, and towns like it right across the country, can’t wait any longer.”

While in Arklow, Nessa Childers also visited the site where the Asgard II was built and launched in Arklow. She met with some of the shipwrights who built the Asgard II and discussed the decision of the Minister for Defence to abandon the ship at the bottom of the Bay of Biscay.

“The decision of the Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, to leave the Asgard II to rot away on the seabed in the Bay of Biscay is extremely disappointing. Speaking with the extremely skilled craftsmen who originally built the ship and to those who sailed on her over the years, that sense of disappointment is brought into clearer sight.

“While the raising of the Asgard II would have been a challenge, both the Minister and the Board of Coiste a Asgard appear to have been only too willing to throw in the towel and abandon the plans to raise and restore the vessel. The decision is all the more difficult to understand given that the vessel was fully insured. The fact that the Minister wants to replace a wooden hulled ship with a steel hulled ship is further indication of his ignorance of the heritage value of the Asgard II.

“Both the Asgard and the Asgard II have a long and honourable history in our country. Apart from providing training opportunities for young people, the Asgard II was a continuing symbol of our struggle for freedom. “My family has a particularly strong link to both boats. Indeed, my grandparents sailed the Asgard into Howth with its cargo of weapons for the Irish Volunteers.

“In these grim times, the successful raising and restoration of the Asgard would have given the national spirit a badly needed boost. It would have also allowed us to pass the craft of wooden boat building and repair to a new generation. With apprentices being laid off across the country, this would have been an excellent way to allow at least some of them return to work learning a skill. However, as with the economic problems facing the country, the Government has all too easily accepted defeat.”