There was a jobs blow for west Belfast tonight when a US owned technology company shut its plant in the city.
CCC Technologies told its 30 staff to go home and that the plant was closingwith immediate effect.
The company, on the Springbank Industrial Estate in Poleglass, producedtelecommunications switching systems and specialised cabling.
CCC made no immediate comment but the closure was confirmed by Invest NorthernIreland, the British government's jobs creation body.
Invest NI's predecessor, the Industrial Development Board, provided £1.6 Stgmillion in grants and capital to secure the opening of the plant in theunemployment black spot in 1996.
The company promised to create 75 jobs and at its peak employed more than 100,but during the global technology downturn the numbers slumped to the final 30.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Michael Ferguson hit out at Invest NI and theIndustrial Development Board who, he said, had a policy of constantly seeking tofund foreign inward investment to the detriment of local indigenous industries.
Mr Ferguson said: "It is my belief that time and again Invest NI and itspredecessor the IDB have misused public monies.
"Time and again companies open with a fanfare of publicity only to fold oneor two years later, having lifted the grant aid and only created a fraction ofthe jobs promised."
PA