Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has criticised the management of Tara Mines over the latest breakdown in negotiations.
Peadar Toibín
He told Meath Live, “The Trade Unions have been engaged with Tara Mines management in good faith. The Unions were hopeful that negotiations would finish by April 5th and that workers would be back in gainful employment soon after that. But those discussions have been brought to an abrupt end by Tara Mines without any response to the Unions’ proposals. It appears that the Mine will remain in Care and Maintenance for a further extended period. This is desperate outcome for the workers and the people of Meath. It seems to me that Tara Mines management are playing hard ball, stretching out negotiations for as long as possible knowing that workers are feeling the pain and will soon lose their Job Seekers Benefits which are due to ne means tested soon”.
“Given the fact that Tara Mines are mining an Irish resource on licence by the state and given that they have made handsome profits for many years in Navan, it is intolerable that they would try to squeeze workers in this manner. Given that this is an Irish resource I believe that the government has a responsibility here. We are talking about hundreds of jobs here with a regional impact. The Government should stop sitting on their hands and start to put pressure on the company to start to find solutions to get people back to work.”
