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Sugar, Sugar on KCLR 96 FM

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    #2
    PeterCasey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 190 ✭✭PeterCasey


    road_high wrote: »
    Excellent series, well worth a listen. Cheers Fianna Fail you absolute donkeys.
    http://kclr96fm.com/series/oh-sugar-sugar/

    It showed how arrogant the Country got listened to it . My family had a lot of dealings with the beet industry from sowing, spraying, pulling, hauling the beet,drawing animal feeds from the sugar factories to farmers ,co ops ,etc. Towns like Thurles Carlow died after it villages like Freshford villages had cafes they all closed up when Thurles closed down feeding the Wexford lorries when they used to travel through those villages early in the morning from the end of September to January.


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    #3
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,405 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    PeterCasey wrote: »
    It showed how arrogant the Country got listened to it . My family had a lot of dealings with the beet industry from sowing, spraying, pulling, hauling the beet,drawing animal feeds from the sugar factories to farmers ,co ops ,etc. Towns like Thurles Carlow died after it villages like Freshford villages had cafes they all closed up when Thurles closed down feeding the Wexford lorries when they used to travel through those villages early in the morning from the end of September to January.

    Carlow took a large blow but definitely not out since the closure. The likes of Thurles suffered worse as it hasn't as diverse a local economic base to compensate.
    The closure was a crying shame though and wasn't wholly necessary from what we know now and what has happened with the EU sugar sector.


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    #4
    madmaggie
    Registered Users Posts: 2,827 ✭✭✭madmaggie


    I remember a local TD, FF, now retired with his nice pension, saying that Carlow didn't need low skilled jobs like production. I was working in Braun at the time, and thought of his words at the next election.


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    #5
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,405 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    madmaggie wrote: »
    I remember a local TD, FF, now retired with his nice pension, saying that Carlow didn't need low skilled jobs like production. I was working in Braun at the time, and thought of his words at the next election.

    Know the plonker you are referring to. This was the general attitude, astounds me how they still garner such support in Carlow.
    We need jobs at all levels, indeed the Irish Sugar jobs were actually very skilled and technical which makes the loss harder to take as it's tentacles reached very deep into local employment.


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    #6
    PeterCasey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 190 ✭✭PeterCasey


    road_high wrote: »
    Carlow took a large blow but definitely not out since the closure. The likes of Thurles suffered worse as it hasn't as diverse a local economic base to compensate.
    The closure was a crying shame though and wasn't wholly necessary from what we know now and what has happened with the EU sugar sector.


    When Thurles closed the Country was in a bad recession when Carlow closed people thought we were never going to have a poor day anymore then moving it to Mallow miles away from where sugar beet was produced it wasn't viable transport costs etc. There is mixed views why the factory in Carlow was closed before Mallow.


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    #7
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,405 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    PeterCasey wrote: »
    When Thurles closed the Country was in a bad recession when Carlow closed people thought we were never going to have a poor day anymore then moving it to Mallow miles away from where sugar beet was produced it wasn't viable transport costs etc. There is mixed views why the factory in Carlow was closed before Mallow.

    Purely political. Carlow/Kilkenny had zero political clout vs Cork which usually has several senior ministers. Simon Coveney's brother is also head of Greencore which owned Irish Sugar- he wasn't going to close his "own" before Carlow.
    This was despite the fact the Carlow plant was more productive, infinitely better located as regards logistics and sugar beet growing. Of course this was all academic as Greencore took the money and ran in the end. The tragedy was the business was still profitable right up to closure and still could have been with some rationalization- Finland for example held onto its sugar beet growing despite being less productive than Ireland.


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    #8
    PeterCasey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 190 ✭✭PeterCasey


    road_high wrote: »
    Purely political. Carlow/Kilkenny had zero political clout vs Cork which usually has several senior ministers. Simon Coveney's brother is also head of Greencore which owned Irish Sugar- he wasn't going to close his "own" before Carlow.
    This was despite the fact the Carlow plant was more productive, infinitely better located as regards logistics and sugar beet growing. Of course this was all academic as Greencore took the money and ran in the end. The tragedy was the business was still profitable right up to closure and still could have been with some rationalization- Finland for example held onto its sugar beet growing despite being less productive than Ireland.

    Was David Dillinger not the head of greencore then ,Greencore wanted out of sugar beet production .


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    #9
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,405 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    PeterCasey wrote: »
    Was David Dillinger not the head of greencore then ,Greencore wanted out of sugar beet production .

    Think you’re right, Coveney is current Chair. They picked it up for a song under FF in 1991, then saw the juicy EU compo and ran. That should never have been allowed happen.


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