PRESS RELEASE

22 April 2010

ETI 03/09/10

 

Assembly Committee voices grave concerns about the future of Quinn Insurance

The Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Enterprise, Trade & Investment today met with employee representatives from Quinn Insurance to hear evidence on the ongoing issues facing the company. Witnesses told the Committee Members how the restrictions imposed on the organisation were impacting on employees. They stressed that, if the situation is not urgently resolved, job losses at Quinn Insurance would have much greater consequences in terms of employment and the wider economy in Fermanagh.

The Committee agreed to request urgent meetings with the Irish Financial Regulator, the Financial Services Authority in London and the Administrator for Quinn Insurance to urge all parties to work to resolve the issues so as to retain jobs across Northern Ireland, Great Britain and The Republic of Ireland and to help preserve the local economy in Fermanagh and the West.

Chair of the Committee, Alban Maginness said, “Significant job losses in Quinn Insurance would have a devastating and long lasting affect on the small economy in Fermanagh. The county has great difficulty in attracting inward investment and the Quinn Group is to be commended for the work it has done in growing the local economy, providing jobs and preventing what would otherwise have been a mass exodus of skilled people from the Fermanagh region.”

Deputy Chair Paul Butler added: “It is essential that we do everything within our power to retain jobs in the west so that we can preserve the future economy of the region.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s membership is:

Mr. Alban Maginness (Chairperson)
Mr. Paul Butler (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr. Gregory Campbell
Mr. Leslie Cree
Ms. Jennifer McCann
Dr. Alasdair McDonnell
Mr. Gerry McHugh
Mr. Daithí McKay
Mr. Stephen Moutray
Mr. Sean Neeson
Mr. David Simpson

Media enquiries to:
Jennifer Pleavin
Communications Officer
Northern Ireland Assembly
Phone: 028 9052 1606
Mobile : 07502 379339
Email: jennifer.pleavin@niassembly.gov.uk

Sinead Murphy
Deputy Communications Officer
Northern Ireland Assembly
Phone: 028 905 25938
Mobile : 07825 146794
Email: sinead.murphy@niassembly.gov.uk