Congress condemns speculator 'feeding-frenzy' around Jurys
5 Sep 2005
Congress today condemned the speculator-driven feeding frenzy around the Jurys Doyle hotel group and said it was a prime example of "putting profit before people."
Congress General Secretary David Begg said: "Throughout this whole slightly sordid episode - played like a soap opera in the media - people seem to have lost sight of the 800 jobs that will be sacrificed to satisfy speculative greed.
"These 800 permanent and pensionable jobs will be lost forever - not because of outsourcing, not because of competition from low-wage economies, but because already wealthy speculators want to make a quick buck.
"We're looking at the Americanisation of the economy, where the bottom line is king and the social consequences matter not a whit.
"Over the longer-term, this could prove disastrous for the city of Dublin and Irish society - how many more jobs and amenities are to be lost to this form of activity?
"When Donegal suffered serious job cuts recently, we were told there was nothing that cut be done.
"But in this situation Congress believes something can be done - the planning authorities and the local authorities must step in and ensure that development in the city and country is no longer driven by speculators: change the zoning, insist that amenities cannot be transformed into luxury homes, insist that the social consequences of any development are at least equal to the financial considerations.
"They must put a stop to this madness."
ends