A SPECIAL inter-agency group which will attempt to find an alternative employment for 180 Longford people was announced by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, last night.
Ms Harney rejected criticism by a former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, that the task force to assist workers from the Atlantic Mills plant at Clondra, outside Longford town, should have been set up weeks ago.
Mr Reynolds, who is the local Fianna Fail TD, had put down a question in the Dail last week, asking why no action was being taken to find employment for the mill workers who produced denim at the plant.
The Tanaiste said she had been in the Netherlands recently attempting to encourage the Royal Ten Cate company, the parent company, to keep the plant open.
"The decision to close down the plant was only taken in recent days, so setting up a task force would have sent the wrong signals from someone trying to keep the plant open," she said.
However, it was well known that the industry has been in trouble for some time and last year the parent company closed down part of its operations in Tullamore, Co Offaly, to consolidate the Irish operation.
At the end of the summer, the workers were given an extra week's holidays and they were working on short time until this week.
The closure was eventually announced to a mass meeting of the workers at the extensive factory on the Longford/Roscommon border, at 8 a.m. yesterday.
"We all knew that we had done our best and there was nothing more the company could do. There were huge losses caused by the lack of demand for denim," said Mr Frank O'Reilly, the division (Ireland) manager.
Mr O'Reilly, who will also lose his job at the end of January, said the workers who had tried so hard to keep the plant going had understood, because the management received a round of applause when they finished delivering the bad news.
"It was highly unusual, to say the least, but I think we all knew that it was over for all of us," he said yesterday at the nearly empty plant which had been deserted by the workers.
Mr Seamus McEntee, the local SIPTU representative, said people were understandably shocked and disappointed at the announcement, although there had been mounting evidence that things were not good.
"Regrettably, my first priority must now be to conclude an agreement for an exit package for our members. I will also be seeking an urgent meeting with the Tanaiste to seek assistance from the State agencies to find a replacement industry for the workers, quickly," said Mr Mc Namee.
That may not be easy. Ms Harney, speaking on RTE radio yesterday, said that it might not be possible to find an industry to go to the Clondra plant, located where it is, eight miles from Longford.
The average age of the workforce is 37 and the average service they have with the company is 11 years, which will yield them little statutory redundancy.
On Thursday one of the workers had become a grandfather, celebrated his 60th birthday and lost his job, all in the space of 24 hours. Another, who would not be named, said the closure was like caring for a sick relative until the death. When the patient died it was still a big shock.
A group of the workers who had gathered in the Bodhran pub in Longford were too emotional to talk to journalists and asked to be left alone.
A joint meeting of Longford County Council and the Urban Council in Longford will be held on Monday night to discuss the situation and to put pressure on politicians to get a replacement industry.