This article is from page 6 of the 2006-01-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
WORKERS at Shannon Development are “flabbergasted” over comments made by chairman, Liam McElligott that there is now alignment in thinking between the Board and staff over the future development of the company.
A spokesman for staff at Shannon Development told The Clare People this week, “The staff are flabbergasted by Mr McElligott’s comments and his lack of grasp of the situation. He obviously doesn’t appreciate the depth of feeling by staff at what is being done to the company. His comments have resulted in a further distance between Board and staff.”
Earlier this month, at a press briefing to mark the publication of Shannon Development’s end of year statement, Mr McElligott said: “I am quite confident now that there is alignment in our thinking,” when asked about ongoing tensions over the future role of the company.
The spokesman said, “Mr McElligott’s comments are demoralising for staff as they infer that there is now tacit approval by staff of the company’s new mandate, and give the impression that everything is sorted. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Currently, staff are refusing to co-operate with the implementation of the new mandate, pending the outcome of talks between SIPTU and the Department of the Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The mandate would see Shannon Development lose its core enterprise functions to Shannon Development and the IDA.
The spokesman added, “There is real anger and weariness at Mr McEliggott’s comments. This re-affirms SIPTU’s call for the present Board to resign en masse. They are not in touch with what is going on.”
Asked are staff confident that Shannon Development will hold onto the promotion of Shannon Free Zone in their talks with the Department, he said, “We are confident that we have made a very good argument. As to whether we will be successful, I don’t know.
“If it does proceed, it will lead to an impoverished situation for the company and drastically weaken its ability to do positive things for the region as Shannon Development has been a lynchpin in a lot of things.
“In practice, it will reduce Shannon Development to a property management company. And we are very disappointed over the lack of analysis behind the decision to revise the mandate.”