Statement from Tánaiste on Job Losses at Schneider Electric Manufacturing and 3Com

The job losses announced today are a major blow for the workers directly affected and for their families.

Employment in Ireland is still growing, however. The most recent figures from the CSO show that the number of people at work in this country actually increased by more than 28,000 over the previous twelve months. I would hope that all those hit by today's closures will be able to find new jobs as quickly as possible.

We have suffered major job losses in this country in the past but we have shown that we can recover from them. The government will continue to pursue the policies which will keep unemployment down and which will enable our economy to generate new jobs to replace those which have been lost.

ENDS/ETE 1134