Odlums Mills in Cork is to close with the loss of 27 jobs, reports said today.
The company has been milling and packing flour in the Republic of Ireland for over 160 years and operates three mills. The business was established by the Odlum family in Portlaoise in 1845.
Fine Gael Cork South Central TD Simon Coveney said the announcement that the plant would close in September had added to the jobs crisis in the county and that an “emergency response” was needed.
Mr Coveney said Odlums had stated it could not compete with competitors’ imports from the UK and the decline in the value of sterling.
The party's agriculture, fisheries and food spokesman Michael Creed said the job losses highlighted the need for the Government to legislate for a fair trading framework.
"Odlums is now an iconic example of a landmark Irish brand name shedding jobs and highlights the difficulty of surviving in the absence of a fair trading environment," he said. "The sad reality, however, is Odlums will be one of many that will go by the wayside unless the Government acts swiftly to legislate for a fair trading framework."
Labour Party TD for Cork North Central, Kathleen Lynch, said the Odlums job losses were “part of pattern of under-the-radar job losses that are slowly but surely strangling the economic life out of local communities around the country”.
“High-profile, large-scale redundancies such as those announced this week in Smurfit Kappa in Cork, and in Bausch and Lomb in Waterford are dreadful experiences for all involved.
“However, they are no worse for those who are actually losing their jobs than when smaller plants like Odlums close, or when a shop lets two or three workers go, or when an contractor tells an electrician that work has dried up.”
Figures released yesterday showed that the number of people on the Live Register increased by 11,400 in June, to 413,500 – an increase of nearly 198,000 over 12 months.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen accepted that the number of people on the register will pass a half a million by the end of the year and that it may rise higher next year.