US e-learning plant closure costs Limerick 173 jobs

An e-learning operation in Limerick that employs 173 people will close as part of a global restructuring measure.

NETg at the Plassey Technological Park is part of the Thomson Corporation, a US multinational information provider with more than 20 million customers and a turnover of $7.5 billion (€6.2 billion) in 2002. The Limerick plant was originally an Irish start-up in existence since the late 1980s. It was taken over by Thomson some years ago.

Ms Jessica Rohm, vice-president communications with Thomson Learning, who travelled to Limerick for the closure announcement, said the IT business had been soft in recent times.

Everyone had been working hard with the Limerick team to "turn things around", she said, but it had been decided that the plant would have to close with the work moving to the firm's operations in the US. NETg employs about 750 people in the US, Britain and Ireland.

Staff in Limerick were given the news yesterday, said Ms Rohm.

"They were amazingly professional. We are very proud of them," she said, adding that a generous redundancy package had been negotiated. The plant will close in March 2004.

Thomson, which owns about 200 subsidiaries, has other operations in the Republic, including another two in Limerick, which between them employ 240 people.

It has publishing operations in Dublin that employ about 100 people.

NETg announced a $12 million expansion plan for Limerick in April 2002 that was to have created a further 360 jobs there and in Birr, Co Offaly. The plan was never implemented because of the downturn in the sector.

The jobs in NETg's plant in Limerick are at the higher end of the skills spectrum, according to IDA Ireland. The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, expressed her disappointment at the decision to close the NETg facility.

"Every possible support will be made available by the relevant State agencies to ensure that those affected can find alternative employment," she said.

She added that her sense of disappointment was heightened by the fact that the news came a week after the announcement of a major investment in financial services in the Shannon region.

Last week, Contact Partners announced it had plans to employ up to 170 people at a centre at the Shannon Free Zone.

Labour Party spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin called on Ms Harney to apologise for stating before the 2002 general election that NETg would be creating more than 360 jobs. At the time, Ms Harney said the announcement was not timed to coincide with the general election but had been decided upon some time earlier.

"The NETg jobs, like most of those promised by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste [before the election\] have proved to be an illusion," Mr Howlin said.