Closure of Cork Ford factory took FitzGerald by surprise

The announcement of the closure of the Ford factory in Cork in January 1984 with the loss of 800 jobs took taoiseach Garret FitzGerald by surprise, according to documents released by the Department of the Taoiseach.

In a letter dated January 19th, 1984 to Paddy Hayes, the chairman and managing director of Henry Ford & Son in Ireland, Dr FitzGerald said he was surprised the closure was announced on January 17th, before planned meetings between the government and Ford in Detroit. "I cannot understand why the decision now announced was necessary before these meetings took place," he wrote.

“We are prepared, as we have always been, to sit down with Ford management . . . to see what options are open by way of State action to enable the assembly of cars to continue in Cork.”

The government was prepared to discuss “all possible options for State action to assist Ford replace the vehicle assembly operation with another manufacturing facility”. “Aids and incentives” would be deployed “with every flexibility and good will possible” to assist, he said.

Mr Hayes had written to the taoiseach on January 17th to tell him he would announce the closure that afternoon “with the loss of approximately 800 of the 1,000 jobs in Ford Ireland. Our decision has been taken with deep regret,” he said. Channels of discussion remained open between Ford Ireland and the government. But despite a trip by ministers to Detroit in May that year and efforts to convince the company that other Ford manufacturing could take place in Cork, the plant closed on July 13th. The closure was largely attributed to the removal of restrictions on the imports of fully built motor vehicles into Ireland under European rules.

Documents from the archives also show Dr FitzGerald had met Mr Hayes in 1981 to discuss the future of Ford. A letter from Mr Hayes said it was Ford policy to ensure the leader of the government was briefed.

"I did this three or four times during Jack Lynch's terms of office and I did it (together with Mr Ford himself) with Liam Cosgrave, " he said. "Peculiarly however, your predecessor [Charles Haughey] refused to see me."

In a handwritten note in the file, as part of a briefing for Dr FitzGerald in advance of the meeting with Mr Hayes in November 1981, a civil servant had written: “P Hayes talks to God Almighty only!”