The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is to meet SIPTU representatives today to discuss the future for workers at Blindcraft, a State agency earmarked for closure. Chris Dooley reports.
The company, which makes wicker baskets and orthopaedic beds and repairs French cane furniture, employs 36 people at its factory in Inchicore, Dublin, of whom 26 are blind or visually impaired.
Mr Martin has accepted a recommendation in the Prospectus Report on the health service that it be disbanded. The company receives a State subsidy of €630,000.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said yesterday that he had always said workers at Blindcraft would be "fully consulted" on future employment options. He would hold separate meetings today with representatives of SIPTU and the agency's board to hear what they had to say.
SIPTU's Dublin regional secretary, Ms Patricia King, said Blindcraft could be revitalised "with a little drive and imagination".