Tiscali closure brings Sligo job loss total to 450 in November alone

More than 450 jobs have now been lost in Sligo town during the month of November alone. The latest jobs blow came as management at the Tiscali contact call centre in Finisklin Business Park announced today (Nov 26) that they are to close in six months time with the loss of 160 jobs. Originally established in 2005 as Toucan, the company is currently owned by Talk Talk.

This latest news follows closely on the heels of a number of significant job losses in Sligo town in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Abbott Ireland, Sligo's largest employer, announced it was laying off 41 workers while pharmaceutical company Stiefel Laboratories, which was only bought by GlaxoSmithKline in July, announced it would be closed down completely by 2013 with the loss of 250 jobs.

Responding to the latest job losses, Sligo éirígí activist Gerry Casey said: "This is a devastating blow for the workers involved and for their families who now face into an anxious and uncertain future. This administration has displayed gross incompetence in dealing with the job crisis. They have overseen mass unemployment and job losses on a scale never seen before on this island."

He added: "Despite the extent of the jobs crisis and the need for determined action at this time, Fianna Fáil and the Greens have sat like rabbits caught in the glare of headlights, paralysed as the jobs continue to drain away and the dole queues get longer."

Casey also challenged the political and business establishment over their claims that voting for Lisbon would create new jobs and secure those jobs already here.

He said: "During the Lisbon debate these politicians told us all how voting for Lisbon would create jobs and secure those currently here. Here in Sligo, politicians such as Marian Harkin MEP and local Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour representatives repeatedly made such claims. "

"As éirígí pointed out at the time, those assertions were blatantly untrue. Now these claims have been exposed for the outright falsehoods that they were by the devastating loss of jobs earlier this month at Abbott and Stiefel, followed now by this latest closure at Tiscali. Those politicians and parties that engaged in such deceitful behaviour should hang their heads in shame."