CONFUSION SURROUNDS the make-up of a Government taskforce established in response to the 1,900 job cuts at Dell in Limerick, following an announcement by Fianna Fáil TD Peter Power.
The Minister of State for Overseas Development issued a statement yesterday morning welcoming the appointment of an employment taskforce for Limerick under the chairmanship of Denis Brosnan, the former chief executive of Kerry Group.
However, Mr Brosnan insisted that “at no point in time” did he confirm a decision to chair the new group and said he had asked the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, for a few more days to consider the matter.
A spokeswoman for Ms Coughlan’s office also insisted yesterday that no statement had been issued on the matter and refused to comment on the announcement made by Mr Power, who was in Prague yesterday.
“I want to spend the weekend thinking about it,” said Mr Brosnan. “We know what needs to be done and the Tánaiste knows what needs to be done and obviously she hasn’t stopped pressurising me to making that decision, but as I said I want to weigh up what it means in my own life and balance that with what I need to do for the region.”
A spokeswoman for the Tánaiste’s office could not confirm when an official announcement on the make-up of the new taskforce would be announced.
Local Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell called for immediate clarification on the matter and said it was “regrettable” that such confusion had occurred.
“I was surprised with Minister Power’s announcement when this morning I contacted the press office of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment who informed me that they had been advised by the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s office that no formal announcement had yet been made. My surprise was all the greater when I Iearned of Mr Denis Brosnan’s statement that he had as yet not accepted the invitation to chair the taskforce,” said Mr O’Donnell.
Mr Power released a statement early yesterday morning that was widely reported by local media in Limerick, naming Mr Brosnan as the chairman of the Limerick employment task force.
“Denis Brosnan has an international reputation for success and he will bring a can-do attitude to the work of the board,” said Mr Power in his statement.
Other members of the board named in the statement were Brian O’Connell, chairman of Atlantic Way; John Fitzgerald, chairman of Limerick Generation; John Herlihy, chief executive of Google Ireland; Martin Cronin, chief executive of Forfás; Anita Higgins, general manager of the Adare hotel and golf resort; Ken O’Sullivan, chief executive of Element Six; and Kay McGuinness, chairwoman of the Shannon Foynes Port Authority.
Vincent Cunnane, chief executive of Shannon Development, was named as chief executive of the new task force.