Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash challenged Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke on what he is doing to protect 3,500 jobs across 70 Dealz shops in Ireland.
With workers facing uncertainty in the run-up to Christmas, the Labour finance spokesperson called on the Minister to “lift up the phone” to owner Gordon Brothers and press for a plan to keep the business trading and protect jobs.
Dealz’s UK sister company Poundland, also owned by the US-based investment firm has today received a ten-day UK High Court extension to protect the chain from its creditors.
Nash said the “clock is ticking and it remains unclear if a rescue plan for Poundland will be delivered within that timeframe. This whole situation has clear implications one way for the other for 3,500 Dealz staff in Ireland.”
He said, “Dealz workers are heading into their busiest weeks of the year wondering whether they will still have a job after Christmas. I do not want to add to their existing anxieties, but it is high time that government started showing some interest in this.”
The Louth TD noted “yesterday, the Minister for Public Expenditure said that government had received no notification of collective redundancies. Workers need to know what the Minister for Enterprise is doing now to work to protect their interests. I asked him that directly today and he simply failed to answer.”
“We have known about the possible threat to jobs since September. His response to me makes it clear that neither the Minister nor any of his agencies have spoken to Gordon Brothers to interrogate their plans for Ireland. This is irresponsible. Just yesterday Gordon Brothers attended a private meeting of the Select Committee on Business chaired by Liam Byrne MP, in Westminster.
“Irish people will know that Gordon Brothers companies owned Clery’s until the fateful day of the 12th June, 2015; almost 500 people lost their livelihoods when the company that ran the department store was put into liquidation.”
“The building was flipped to Natrium, which told workers it was not their employer. People who had given years to that business were left on O’Connell Street with nothing but the dole. I supported those workers through thick and thin and I worked to change the law so workers facing redundancy in an insolvency would have a voice and a right to consultation. That is now law,” he explained.
“Minister Burke must take action and demand a plan from the ultimate owners of Dealz to protect jobs in Ireland and tell workers what he is doing to secure their future. To date, government’s inaction and silence on an issue we have all been aware of for weeks now, has been damning.”