Smurfit Kappa to close Coolock plant

Smurfit Kappa Cartons has announced it is to close its Coolock plant with the loss of 140 jobs.

The company, which make folding cartons for the healthcare and hi-tech industries, blamed pressures in the Irish manufacturing sector for the closure.

Smurfit Kappa outlined its survival plan to staff in December, which included major restructuring, redundancies and wage cuts. However, management told employees in March that the survival plan wasn't enough.

The plant is due to shut later this year, and management is preparing to enter talks on redundancy packages.

Officials from Amicus, which represents the production staff, said although they understood how business fortunes could change, it was more difficult to accept such a rapid reversal, given the company's consistent profitability in recent years.

"Smurfit Kappa appears not to be committed to manufacturing in Ireland as is evidenced by the closure of Smurfit Print and Smurfit Paper Mills," said Amicus official Brendan Byrne.

"Coolock has suffered more than its fair share of blows with Cadbury shedding jobs last year. Our only hope now is that the company will live up to its position as a successful multinational company and offer redundancy packages in line with other multinational companies and will go someway to ease the damage caused to this area of North Dublin."

Fine Gael deputy leader and finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the closure was a body blow to Coolock in the wake of a spate of job losses in the area. "This is a terrible shock to the staff who have dedicated many years to the plant. The staff and their families now face the prospect of making mortgage repayments and covering living costs without any guaranteed source of income," he said.

Labour TD for Dublin North East Tommy Broughan, said: "In the midst of the Celtic Tiger there is a crying need for renewed investment and economic development in Coolock in particular. Parts of North Coolock are among the most deprived in the country, bedeviled by drugs and crime."