February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The closure put 67 people out of work and came seven days after U.S. pharmaceutical company Hospira announced that it is to close its Donegal plant with the loss of 560 jobs.
The owners of Clubman Omega said they would continue to manufacture shirts in Lithuania where they have operated for the past three years. The company said it was pulling out of Donegal due to the “unacceptably high costs of production” in Ireland.
It said that its products produced in Ireland were completely uncompetitive in national and international markets.
Fine Gael Donegal North East Senator Joe McHugh blamed government policies for driving international manufacturing out of Ireland.
“There is no doubt that rip-off Ireland and the cost of doing business here are the main factors in these job losses,” said McHugh.
“This government’s policies are killing the Irish manufacturing industry by creating a totally uncompetitive environment for business.
“It’s time for some new policies which would create jobs, whether in the small business sector, or in natural resources like tourism, forestry and angling.
“It is also time to explore the possibility of creating some form of special incentives for small business in the county,” he said.
The closures came in the same week as a report by the Combat Poverty Agency that stated that Donegal was the most impoverished county in the state.
It revealed that the county has the highest level of consistent poverty in the Republic — almost twice the state-wide average.
The agency’s report: “Mapping Poverty: National, Regional and Country Patterns,” defined consistent poverty as being not being able to afford basic necessities like adequate clothing, food and heating.
Joining Donegal on the list as having high levels of consistent poverty were Mayo, Leitrim and Longford.
It is expected that more manufacturing jobs are set to move abroad in the coming months and years. Economists and business groups have said that the high cost of doing business in Ireland is driving away foreign investors.
The Small Firms Association has said that high energy costs, poor rural infrastructure and local government charges would mean that doing business in Ireland would remain unattractive to manufacturing firms who find Eastern Europe a more viable location.
“Ireland is now pricing itself out of the market for manufacturing products,” said SFA director Pat Delaney.
“Our manufacturing base has taken us 70 years to build, yet it is disappearing before our very eyes as we continue to burden the sector with ever-increasing costs.
“Employment in the manufacturing sector has declined by over 35,000 in the past four years and will continue to decline unless we take immediate action to lower our costs,” he said.