Rally hears Enniskillen would be 'ghost town' without insurer

QUINN GROUP employees from both sides of the Border gathered in Enniskillen last night for a mass rally to highlight their job fears.

An estimated 2,000 people heard Northern Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew warn that Enniskillen would be “a ghost town” without the Quinn empire.

“We will not stand idly by and see thousands of jobs lost and tens of thousands of lives affected,” the Sinn Féin MLA told the crowd.

She said counties like Cavan and Fermanagh would never find employers to match the Quinn Group and said if the companies were sold that the jobs would not remain in the region.

Minister for Enterprise Arlene Foster said Co Fermanagh would be £8 million a year worse off if Quinn Insurance was not there.

She said “Seán Quinn was one of those who stepped up to the plate” to give local people jobs.

Many of those at last night’s rally had attended earlier protests in Dublin and Cavan, and said they were there to support their Fermanagh colleagues.

Cavan man Coleman Smith, with Quinn Insurance since 2001, travelled by bus with colleagues to Enniskillen. “Every extended family in Cavan has someone working for Seán Quinn,” he said. “We can’t understand why, when the banks are getting bailouts, that he is not getting a chance.”

Mr Smith said that the Quinn Group had revived many Border communities as people had come home on the basis of jobs created.

Sarah Fee, an employee at Quinn Glass in Derrylin, said that as a single parent with four children she could not think of losing her job. “I think this is a case of a new brush sweeping clean and trying to make an example of someone,” she said. “The action of the regulator seems very, very harsh.”

Patricia Duffin from Co Meath, a Quinn employee in Cavan, said she was aware the regulator had an obligation to policy holders “but he also has an obligation not to put people on the dole”.

Damien Love, one of two local Quinn Insurance employees who addressed the rally, said people should be aware of the reality they were facing – dole payments of just £50.95 a week for young people, £64.30 for over 25s and £100.95 for couples.

His colleague Maria Glancy said 2,800 employees would be directly affected by the actions of the regulator.

“Administrators see balance sheets and loans but they fail to see the faces behind them, those who have children to rear and mortgages to pay,” she said.

Local shops and pubs displayed flyers supporting last night’s rally. Angela Rooney said 600 people worked in a Quinn company beside her shop in the town and if their future was not secure the consequences for the business community, would be devastating. Among those attending the rally were Roscommon/South Leitrim TD Frank Feigha and Senator Joe O’Reilly (FG).