Seán Quinn today announced that he and his wife Patricia are to stand down from the board of the Quinn Group.
In a statement, Mr Quinn said his decision was based on his "need to concentrate in the short term on Quinn family interests outside of Quinn Group Limited and in particular on the interaction of these interests with Anglo Irish Bank".
Mr Quinn also said he was keen to avoid any potential conflict of interest associated with the proposed sale of Quinn Insurance.
"After 37 years of sustained development Quinn Group Limited has a mature, professional and skilled executive as well as a very experienced and independent board," he said. "The group is extremely well invested and is strongly positioned to meet all of the challenges ahead. The group management and staff in all areas are second to none as has been demonstrated in recent times.
"For now I want to concentrate on Quinn family interests outside of the Group and bring all outstanding matters to a satisfactory conclusion in that regard".
Earlier today, it was announced that the team set up to co-ordinate the State’s response to hundreds of redundancies at Quinn Insurance will be chaired by former Enterprise Ireland chief executive Dan Flinter.
Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe announced the appointment today after meeting with workers’ representatives from the insurer in Cavan.
More than 900 staff in the Quinn Group’s insurance division are to be made redundant over the next 15 months under a plan drawn up by the joint administrators.
Mr O’Keeffe described Mr Flinter’s appointment as “an important signal” of the level of Government concern about the job losses.
He said Mr Flinter had played a key role in the development of Irish industrial policy and his expertise would be an asset in the "efforts to meet the needs of workers in Quinn Insurance who are losing their jobs”.
Mr O'Keeffe also announced that up to €1 million is to be set aside from the Government’s labour market activation programme to develop "tailored responses" for workers losing their jobs in Quinn Insurance.
“The Government is taking concrete steps to rebuild confidence in the local economy, attract fresh investment and prepare those out of work to get back into the labour force quickly,” he said.
Mr O’Keeffe was joined at today's meeting with Quinn workers by the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, who is a TD for Cavan-Monaghan, and representatives from State job creation and training agencies.
The Government inter-agency team is made up of officials from Enterprise Ireland, Fás, IDA Ireland, and relevant county enterprise boards.
Separately, Mr O’Keeffe said he had been in contact with his Northern Ireland ministerial counterpart, Arlene Foster, with a view to drawing down European Union funding under the Cross-Border Interreg Programme for training initiatives and start-up business supports in the affected areas.
“Officials on both sides met yesterday and they are now working on a funding proposal which will be submitted to the Interreg Programme when the next call for proposals is made in September,” he said.
Mr O’Keeffe has met worker representatives several times in recent weeks while working on the Government response to the redundancies.
“The Government is very conscious that the Quinn Insurance workers who are losing their jobs are high calibre and highly skilled,” he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny travelled to Cavan yesterday to “show solidarity” with Quinn workers and met a delegation of employees, businessmen and women and representatives of the local chamber of commerce.
