Recovery in Cavan: Liberty Insurance lay offs were a ‘shock’

The people of Cavan certainly did not think they were in a post-recession era earlier this summer when they woke up to hear that 115 people at the town's Liberty Insurance company were to lose their jobs.

There is no way around it: losing 115 people in a company of 340 is bad news for the town.

“It’s sensitive,” says Dominic Finlay, corporate affairs manager at Liberty. “Especially as there are not a lot of other jobs going in Cavan.”

Edward Coleman, who has been running Cavan Gifts for 26 years, says things are improving ever so slightly.

“But I certainly would not say we are well out of the recession. Seven or eight years ago, we used to do a lot of high range gifts, like Waterford Crystal. We’d sell whole sets of glasses. I’d have had about €10,000 of stock on display in the window,” he says.

“We had to stop doing all that and cater for what people could afford, so we had to go out and source new stock. I’d have gone out of business if I hadn’t adapted. We closed part of the back of the shop for two years.

“The thing about this business is that you can do without these goods. We’re looking for extra cash that people have to spend, and they don’t really have it. For a town to really thrive, you need industry and we don’t have any in this town.”

Confidence

Out on the Dublin Road, Tom Brady has been running his family-owned garage, which sells Seats and Skodas, for 15 years.

“The lifeblood of our business is someone borrowing €15,000 every three years to change their car, but for years, the banks weren’t loaning,” he says. “Things have improved greatly in the last two years. We’re seeing more confidence. Sales are up. The main barometer in our business is the number of cars you’re selling.”

Brady says that in 2010, 800 new registered vehicles were sold in the entire county of Cavan. For this year, at the time of my visit in early July, 1,000 new cars had been registered. It may not seem like much of an increase, but for Brady, it’s significant.

“The recession definitely isn’t over. We’re on the way up, but a lot of people are still coping and hurting from the last number of years,” he says.

“Economic improvement has not fully reached us here. If things are up 20 per cent in Dublin and Cork and Galway, we’re only feeling 5 per cent.”

Recession

Andy Pierce used his savings to open J&B Hope, a coffee and kitchenware shop he describes as having “an Amish influence”, three years ago. “We don’t sell anything with a plug,” he says.

“Everyone thought we were crazy, starting a business in Cavan in 2012. Last year, everyone hoped it would be the year that things would pick up. They didn’t.

“If this year had continued in the same vein, a lot of people in the town would be giving up and closing their businesses.

“I could see the effect of the recession in the lines on people’s faces. I don’t think people are as tense now as they were. Even a couple of years ago, things were really bad.

“I think people are starting to relax a bit now. They are starting to treat themselves to things.”

His business has gone up 50 per cent from last year, although he is still working two other jobs.

“We are seeing a few customers from Northern Ireland, so the exchange rate is helping us. I think people are starting to feel secure, which is why the Liberty job losses were such a shock; it brought back bad memories.”

Value of money

Declan Woods, an estate agent in Cavan who has worked in the business for 21 years, says prices have gone down 65 per cent from the peak of the market.

“Things levelled out in 2012. A three-bed semi in the town would have sold for €185,000. Now it’s about €90,000 and that includes a recent bounce in the market,” he says.

“Two-bed apartments that sold for €300,000 in 2005-2006 are now going for about €55,000. At one point, they dropped to €25,000. Many of those buyers would have been investors, but not all. Lots of single people bought those apartments too.”

Since 2013, he has seen some life come back into the market.

“When you put a property on the market before that, you’d be lucky to have one person come look at it. Now there is a bidding process. People understand the value of money now, because in the boom you could buy properties without any savings. People now understand and appreciate the value of money.

“Prices are low, but at least I’m seeing a market now. A lot of people are able to buy properties with not much bank assistance. You can buy certain terraced houses for €60,000. The goal for buyers now is to borrow as little as possible from the bank, whereas in the past it was to borrow as much as possible.”

Like everyone I talk to, he mentions the job losses at Liberty. “We didn’t have big job announcements during the boom, and we’re definitely not going to get them now. Is Cavan out of the recession? Put it this way, there certainly isn’t cause here for any street party yet.”