Get real about Industrial Jobs

mayo | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Saturday October 23, 2004 02:57 by Keith Martin kmartin at dna dot ie

Time to address the problem of jobs in Westport

Cllr Keith Martin, an Independent Cllr on Westport Town council says it is time to "get real" about industrial jobs in the town.

Get real about Industrial jobs

Cllr Keith Martin says its time to “get real” about industrial jobs in Westport. Cllr Martin says he feels that it is misleading to discuss bringing industrial jobs to Westport.
According to Cllr Martin “Industrial jobs in Ireland are dead and gone. There are no industrial jobs to be had anymore. We have seen this in Castlebar where one profitable factory after another have moved elsewhere because they can make more money by paying staff less in countries in Eastern Europe and the Far East.
Westport has to look towards jobs in the service industry and retail sectors as well as increasing those in the tourism industry. We have to look at things like call-centres and jobs from leisure industries like fishing, marine activities, hill-walking and the spin off from a marina. There will be no more factories built in Westport as it is too expensive to employ Irish people. Instead we have to look at business and retail parks as the employment centres of the future.
Cllr Martin adds “that only recently I was talking with members of Buncranna Town Council and they are facing a loss of 47% of their town’s rates with the departure of the ‘Fruit of the Loom’ factory. This is the fate of any town which relies too heavily on ‘Industrial’ jobs. We are fortunate that in Westport we have a large industrial employer who have stuck with our town through thick and thin but we will not get employers like these ever again. Industrial jobs are no more and its time to stop talking about them”