Navan, Co Meath, will lose up to £3 million a week following the recent closure of Tara Mines and the loss of more than 650 jobs, local business people estimate.
Mr Oliver Shanley, president of Navan Chamber of Commerce, told The Irish Times the real economic effects of the temporary lay-offs had not as yet become apparent.
"We would expect that over the next few weeks, particularly with Christmas and the New Year, its effect on the local economy will be felt. We hope that the lay-offs will not continue any longer than the original three months indicated by Tara Mines.
"It is estimated that the operation at Knockumber is worth £3 million weekly to the local economy," he said.
The chamber has written to both the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, stating that the circumstances of the lay-offs underline the necessity to broaden the base of commercial and manufacturing activity in the area.
"It also emphasises the effects that the over-dependency on a narrow base of large employers can have. In the present climate, more attention must be paid to assist indigenous enterprise."
The chamber asked the Government to encourage industrial and commercial enterprises to set up in the Navan area.
Mr Dick McGlew, a miner and secretary of SIPTU's underground committee at Tara Mines, said the workers were "absolutely gutted" to have been laid off just before Christmas.
A group of up to 1,000 workers and their families marched through the town in protest recently, bringing traffic to a standstill. "We feel there was no attempt made to try to keep the place running. Anything we proposed, like a three-day week or other cost-cutting measures, were cut down."
The parent company, Outokumpu, has drawn up proposals for the continued operation of the mine over the coming months, but it is not yet clear whether the timetable will be adhered to if the price of ore fails to rise or when workers will be taken back.
Mr McGlew estimates that two very different age groups will be affected by the closure.
"There are probably a couple of hundred young people who joined in the last two to three years and another couple of hundred who are over 50.
"The older people will find it hard to find something because they will have lost touch with the building industry. But the younger people will also find it hard because they have mortgages to pay.
"Some of the younger people who have not been here very long are not going to ever come back."
Mr Jim Smith, also a miner, from Slane, about seven miles from Navan, is also very downbeat about his situation. He left the mine, along with the rest of his colleagues, on November 15th.
"We had bits and pieces of trouble over the years but we always seemed to be able to get over them." Things will be difficult coming up to Christmas, Mr Smith says.
He has seven children, the oldest of whom is 20 and the youngest seven.
Three of them are in secondary school. Mr Smith is now collecting unemployment benefit and his wife works part-time. The family income has dropped by half, he estimates.
Mr Smith feels that, based on current forecasts, Tara Mines will not be taking staff back for the foreseeable future.
The local economy will inevitably suffer, he believes. "People will eventually feel the pinch. The shops will realise the money just isn't there from Tara."
SIPTU workers were meeting late last night to discuss the recommendations of the Labour Court. The other unions whose members have been laid off are the TEEU, AEEU and MSF.
In its own submission to the Labour Court, Tara Mines' parent company, Outokumpu, said there would be a comprehensive review of the overall situation in January. Operations would resume as soon as market conditions allowed the mine to become viable.
Alternative options, including those proposed by the unions, proved to be more costly.
The Tara Mines Group of Unions, in its own submission to the Labour Court, sought severance terms in line with those which applied in 1995, in the event that operations do not recommence within 13 weeks.
The Labour Court recommended the review of operations take place in January as proposed and that the court be fully briefed on the outcome.