Voluntary redundancies sought at Enniskillen, Cavan town and Dublin offices
Liberty Insurance is set to make 285 staff in its Irish operations redundant due to “surplus capacity” since taking over Quinn Insurance a year ago.
Liberty, which is part of Liberty Mutual Insurance, told staff at meetings that 70 redundancies will be sought in Enniskillen, 75 in Cavan town and 150 in Blanchardstown in Dublin to secure the company’s future.
The redundancies are understood to be voluntary, but the company has not ruled out compulsory job losses.
The Enniskillen operation currently employs 398 staff.
Liberty made 900 redundancies two years ago.
Liberty took over Quinn from the administrators last year but under the deal it was not liable for historic losses – estimated at up to €1.6bn (£1.28bn) – most of which relate to the UK market.
Liberty announced yesterday that it will enter the Northern Ireland and Great Britain general insurance markets by exercising the option to acquire the renewal rights to the policies written by Quinn in those regions. During the last year, Liberty had serviced this business on behalf of Quinn’s administrators.
As a result of taking on the UK business, Liberty said it had secured 415 jobs – more than one-third of the workforce – who will continue to work on UK policies.
Liberty’s director of operations John McDonagh told the BBC that the redundancies would come as a “big blow all over and particularly big for smaller communities like Enniskillen and Cavan”.
He said: “We’ve been carrying a surplus capacity since Liberty acquired the business 12 months ago.
“We didn’t want to address that until we knew exactly where we were going in relation to the Northern Ireland and Great Britain market.
“We are now trading in Northern Ireland and we will be trading in Great Britain from December.”
He said the company did not expect to make further redundancies.
“We are committed to the Northern Ireland and Great Britain market, but I do have to say we are going to be cautious and prudent about how we underwrite the business there,” he added.
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