Intensive talks to avert the closure of Tara Mines are to begin today. The president of SIPTU, Mr Jimmy Somers, and the IBEC director, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, are to join local trade union and company representatives at the talks.
Meanwhile the Labour Court, whose rescue package for the mine was rejected by its Finnish owner, Outokompu, last week, has also made itself available if required.
The initiative for last-minute talks was taken by the new chairman of Meath County Council, Mr Brian Fitzgerald. Mr Fitzgerald is a former Labour TD, who resigned from the party after the merger with Democratic Left. He is also a full-time SIPTU official.
Mr Fitzgerald invited both sides to talks at 5 p.m. yesterday, and they agreed to his proposal to bring in Mr Somers and Mr O'Sullivan as facilitators. Mr Fitzgerald will chair the talks, which begin this morning.
Last night the SIPTU regional secretary, Mr Jack O'Connor, who will lead the union side at the talks, thanked Mr Fitzgerald for his intervention. But he said he was not optimistic about the likely outcome of the renewed negotiations.
"It is better that something is happening, than that nothing is happening and, on behalf of SIPTU, I would like to express my appreciation to Brian Fitzgerald and to the county council for the courage they displayed in launching this initiative."
The company team will be led by the managing director of Tara Mines, Mr Charlie Brown. Last night the company's human resources manager, Mr John Kelly, also welcomed Mr Fitzgerald's intervention.
"We are very pleased that very experienced people such as Mr Somers and Mr O'Sullivan are taking part in the talks", he said. However, like Mr O'Connor, he was not optimistic about the outcome.
He pointed out that the deadline for closing the mine, at 8 a.m. on Monday, remained in place. He said the gap between the two sides had not closed since the Labour Court hearing. "We are maybe not hopeful, but hoping", was how he described the mood on the management side.
Mr Somers was more optimistic. "We hope to find some way of securing the jobs", he said. "We will be pulling out all the stops."
Mr O'Sullivan, who was involved in averting the threatened strike at Irish Ferries two weeks ago, said: "It would be an absolute shame if a business that provided 630 jobs and was a major wealth-producer for the local and national economy was allowed to close.
"I will play whatever part I can in the process, with Jimmy Somers, to ensure the jobs are saved."
The last mining shift at Navan is due to end at 10 p.m. tomorrow and the last ore extracted will have been processed at the mill by 8 a.m. on Monday. After that a small maintenance crew will be the only employees retained by Outokompu, unless a breakthrough is achieved in the next couple of days.
In a statement yesterday the company said that losses this year had reached $11 million.