Liberty Insurance To Axe 270 Jobs

Liberty Insurance has announced it is to axe 270 jobs across the island of Ireland, which includes 20 in Northern Ireland.

The firm said it will be seeking "voluntary redundancies" first, however the cuts will take effect over the next 18 months.

A further 210 workers are also being transferred along with its contract centre in Enniskillen to a third party company.

Sinn Féin MLA Phil Flanagan has said the announcement of job losses at Liberty Insurance in Enniskillen is a huge blow to the local economy. 

The Fermanagh/South Tyrone MLA said: "The move to outsource operations and cut 20 jobs in Enniskillen will cause considerable and understandable concern among the employees.

"The proposed job losses across the rest of the Irish division are equally alarming and represent a huge blow for the staff.

"The employees of Liberty Insurance work to an extremely high standard and deserve better treatment that this.

"I will be seeking an urgent meeting with representatives of both Liberty Mutual and Hughes Insurance to impress upon them the need to retain maximum employment in Enniskillen."

Approximately 135 redundancies are expected in Dublin and 115 in Cavan.

Tom McIlduff, chief executive of Liberty Insurance, said: "We have achieved a lot in our first few years in Ireland, having established a strong brand and grown our distribution network. 

"However, the market is challenging and we have been loss making with an uncompetitive cost base.

"Withdrawing from the Great Britain market, focusing on Ireland and streamlining our operating model will enable us to strengthen our long term competitive position in Ireland in order to service our customers and brokers better."

(CD)