The Workers’ Party has condemned the planned lay-off of more than 200 manufacturing workers at Jacob’s biscuit company in Tallaght, Dublin.

Dublin Mid-West Workers’ Party representative Mick Finnegan, said that workers at Jacob Fruitfield were being scapegoated for the company’s failure to update it plant and the fact that its brands will continue to be manufactured in the UK and elsewhere, in addition to strong sales figures show that these jobs are being sacrificed needlessly.

“The Irish food production sector has been devastated in recent years, not out of lack of competition as alleged by Jacob Fruitfield and others, but out of sheer greed and an insatiable desire for higher profits with regardless of the effect on a community which has supported Jacobs for generations.  That type of customer loyalty is priceless and companies should bear this in mind when looking clinically at their balance sheets”, said Mr. Finnegan.

The Workers’ Party spokesman said that Irish manufacturing was being destroyed and the economy was more and more based on services and the property market.