Quinn Insurance staff staged marches in Dublin and Cavan today to highlight job fears among the 2,800 workers after the Financial Regulator’s decision to place Quinn Insurance into provisional administration.
In Dublin, over 2,000 staff staged a protest outside the Department of Finance, calling for the regulator to overturn his decision to stop accepting new business in the UK.
The protest began outside Leinster House and marchers walked to Government Buildings on Merrion Street. Letters were handed in to the Department and the Taoiseach's office while protestors chanted "save our jobs".
Some workers had travelled from Cavan and Fermanagh to take part in the protest as well as from Cardiff in Wales, where UK employees fear their work will run out in the next couple of months.
Mona Bermingham, one of the employees who organised the protest, said the company had a support network right throughout Ireland that depends on the UK business. "It is crippling the company from top to bottom," she said.
In Cavan town, some 1,500 Quinn Group employees and their supporters gathered outside the office of the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith. A Quinn Group representative handing over a letter of concern from the employees to Mr Smith’s secretary.
A number of Border politicians attended a meeting with the Financial Regulator in Dublin tonight.
A spokeswoman for the Quinn Group yesterday warned it was incumbent on politicians both north and south of the Border to lobby for the workers to get the regulator’s decision overturned. She warned of the “devastating long-term effect” for the Border region and the country if the decision was not reversed.
A letter, written on behalf of UK-based Quinn Insurance employees and service providers was sent to the regulator, the Taoiseach and the provisional administrators appealing to overturn what it says is an “unreasonable” action.
The Taoiseach has asked senior management at Enterprise Ireland to try to “bring matters forward”.
Speaking this morning, Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said he met senior management and Mr Quinn on Easter Sunday in Dublin and that all key parties are "fully engaged in an effort to resolve this matter as quickly as possible".
Mr Ryan said he could not reveal what was discussed during the meeting and that it was too early to say whether Quinn Insurance should stay with the group or be sold.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said the key thing for employees now was to concentrate on doing business and focus on the causes of the situation. "Therehas been a lot of discussion in relation to the decision of the High Court and the administrator etc - that's really a consequence not a cause. I can confirm the causes are being focused on now."
On the same programme, Teresa Lynch, a Quinn Group employee, said the regulator had a job to do but that workers were seeking a compromise that will save their jobs.
"As far as I'm aware, the Quinn Group is making money, as is Quinn Direct, so I don't see where that problem is. . . . what we're saying is let the regulator work with us, let him talk to us, allow us that opportunity," she said.