Kingscourt Brick plant closes

Twenty-nine workers at the Kingscourt Brick manufacturing facility have been left out in the cold on Christmas week with the news that Lagan Brick Ltd is to close the plant with immediate effect. Workers are furious at the manner in which they learned of the closure and the fact that they claim they got just one hour's notice. Workers are now manning the entrance to the factory on a 24-hour basis to ensure that no stock moves off site until redundancy and severance terms have been agreed. A rota has been drawn up to ensure there are three men present at all times. They have a fire going in a barrel and locals are dropping off coal and food supplies in solidarity with the men. A meeting took place between the workers representatives and the company yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at the factory in Kingscourt. See this week's Celt for more on this story... Company statement: Lagan Brick Ltd regrets to confirm that it has informed staff at its production facility in Drumgill, Kingscourt, Co Cavan that the facility will be closing with immediate effect, with the loss of 29 jobs. The company tried every avenue possible over the course of the last number of months to retain the viability of the business, including proposing a pay reduction to employees, which was rejected... The company sincerely regrets having to make this decision, especially at this time of year, unfortunately, deferral of the decision until the New Year simply was not an option. The company would like to thank its entire staff for their hard work and commitment over the years... The company has now entered into a 30-day formal consultation process with employee representatives over the terms of the redundancies.