AMERICAN PULP and paper manufacturer Georgia-Pacific announced yesterday it is to restructure operations at its Finglas plant in Dublin, with the loss of 77 jobs.
The company said the cost-base for operations in Ireland is unsustainable as both “current and expected market conditions” are making the business uncompetitive.
“We simply need to reduce our costs in order to preserve our long-term future in Ireland. These are difficult times, and we need to respond accordingly,” said managing director Hugh McGlasson.
A consultation process with unions is now under way and the redundancies will take place between February and July next year. Up to 60 jobs will be retained at the Finglas factory, in warehouse distribution and support staff, said HR director Pat Doyle on RTÉ Radio’s News At One.
The company has a “strong commitment to the Irish market” he said. Georgia-Pacific makes a number of products for the Irish market including bathroom tissue Inversoft and Kittensoft. The plant has been based in Finglas for over 60 years. There was shock among local politicians in the Finglas area at the announcement.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Dessie Ellis described the news as “another blow to the area”, which already had very high unemployment. “I wish some of the TDs would get up and start screaming to get jobs into the area, ” he said.
Local Labour councillor John Lyons said that Finglas had lost some 200 jobs a month over the last year. The Live Register had grown in a year from 3,500 people to 6,000 people, he said.
Factory workers needed to be retrained and upskilled as soon as possible to be ready for when another job came along, he said.
Mr Ellis was concerned at the amount of training places available and the number of jobs being created.
“It’s a bolt of lightning hitting the community,” said local Labour councillor John Redmond. He said there were many families with young children in the area that had purchased new houses and apartments.
However, the community was pulling together through initiatives such as the Tolka Valley partnership, said Mr Redmond.