Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Yesterday, the Taoiseach ducked and dived as he tried to explain away the Government's inaction in respect of the 950 job losses at Aviva. Following yesterday's briefing, workers at Aviva are still in the dark and fearful for their jobs. It is not clear whether the redundancies will be voluntary or compulsory. The Government has done a great deal of talking about jobs but the only action we have seen is the closure of one company after another. Some 250 jobs at Pocket Kings and 175 jobs at Allied Logistics have been lost in Dublin. Some 700 jobs are under threat at MBNA in County Leitrim. Some 139 jobs were cut at Vodafone in Dundalk. Of course, 575 jobs at TalkTalk in Waterford are gone. We now have the situation with Aviva in Dublin, Cork and Galway. We did not get far with the Taoiseach yesterday.

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