Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LIBERTY INSURANCE, THE company who took over from Quinn Insurance, has today announced 285 job losses.
The company said the redundancies will impact various functions with 140 redundancies expected in Dublin, 75 in Cavan, and 70 in Enniskillen. Currently, approximately 500 staff work in each location.
Liberty Insurance today announced that it will enter the Northern Irish and British general insurance markets by acquiring the renewal rights to the policies written there by Quinn Insurance Ltd. Company.
Following a review of the market entry moves and its cost base, employees were told at briefings today that there would be 285 job losses and they hope most of them to be voluntary, as the UK insurance business has fallen over the past few years.
Reflecting on the job losses, Patrick O’Brien, Chief Executive of Liberty Insurance said:
We have achieved much in our first year in the Irish market and during that time have maintained staff levels that reflected the size of the business. We are fully committed to the Irish business, will continue to invest in our business, and believe that our arrival has been positive for the Irish Insurance market and consumers.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Oh christ, there’ll be frothing-at-the-mouth aplenty in Co. Cavan tonight.
And rightly so. Do you not think that this type of job-loss warrants a bit of a reaction? The administrators promised no job losses. Matthew Elderfield doesn’t seem to have to account to anybody. There a hole of 1.6 bn in the company and no-body will tell us where it came from. Some people have made a whole lot of money out of the take-over of Quinn -direct, and it’s not the employees that were there when Quinn owned it. They came, they filled their pockets and they left again….we need to know what’s going on. We can’t stand by and let these decisions be made, when no-body seems to be accountable for any of the major decisions, or the consequences of same.
Actually YF, there are several very good independant articles on the web, one by BBC Business that explained in very simple terms exactly how Quinn Insurance was allowed to be run into a Billion plus euro hole. The problem is even when facts are placed in front of people they are dismissed out of hand. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see…
Mark,
You hate Quinn with such venom that you must have been a snake in a prior life.
I don’t usually reply to you as I’m no Dr. Dolittle but I’ve one Question for you ….Why would Quinn be pleading for a public inquiry into events in Quinn Direct prior to and post Administration, if he/they thought they were any way at fault?
Mark, since you appear to be an expert on all things Quinn, perhaps you would like to enlighten the rest of us why one of the administrators went before a High Court Judge for several months after administration and said that there would not be a call on the Insurance Compensation Fund. He also said that it was a profitable company. How can you explain the fact that the first quarter in 2010 was the most profitable ever for Quinn Insurance.
Secondly, if you are so sure that it was the correct decision to put the company into administration, I presume that you will have no problem obtaining a copy of the legal/professional advice that the Financial Regulator relied upon to put Quinn Insurance into administration. I look forward to you reporting back with a copy of that advice OR NOT.
They should have never got control of the company in the first place. Bring back Sean Quinn!
It’s Quinn’s fault!!
He ran the company into the ground, it had to be sold and now Liberty are trying to turn it into a viable business again.
Quinn Ins was a dangerous company.
Quinn Insurance was insolvent Barry. I feel sorry for the workers loosing their jobs but their fate under Sean Quinn would have been worse.
It’s a miracle Quinn Insurance are still in business given their founders wreckless behaviour……
They’re not chucky! Liberty took over the business excluding the huge losses and liabilities. The insurance payers of Ireland will be picking up the tab for those losses for the next 15 to 20 years.
It would be interesting to see exactly how many people did Quinn sack over his 45 years in business and how many have Liberty sacked throughout the years.
This is just a textbook example of what happens when you replace red blooded business people with asset stripping bean counters and receivers,
It is happening all over the country at all levels.
It’s amazing how many people are praising Liberty, knowing little their integrity, loyalties, intentions, owners, background etc etc etc.
It’s a problem with Irish people, being jealous and knocking their local fellow neighbors, villagers and business people
yet they’d clean toilet bowls with their bare hands for the stranger in the cheap suit and the fancy name.
Don’t see any comments praising Liberty Harry. You on the sauce again?!
How did liberty get Quinn insurance without absorbing the debt in the first place?
Who in their right mind would have taken it will all the debt Elvedin?
I understand that but what did they pay or or do or promise to warrant the handover ? they got all Quinn policies, website, staff structure everything! If they were starting off fresh there is no way they would grow to current size that quickly? so surely they had to pay something ?
I don’t when you were born lads, but I’m sorry to inform you that the Irish government(s) never had an issue selling of our resources and assets to the first sweet talking foreigner that walked in the door.
They think it saves them from, having to do some real work and using their lazy little brains.
bring his son in law back and lock him up.
Reg, the best predictor of future performance is past performance. HOW MANY PEOPLE DID SEAN QUINN MAKE REDUNDANT IN HIS 4 DECADES OF BUSINESS?
looking forward to your response.
Their arrival has been positive for the Irish markets. Tell that to the laid off people
Hope the American guy on before the Late Late Show is one of them! Most annoying ad on TV
Haha its the Quinn support club again! F#%k you! that’s my msg to you. Go support something with meaning like cuts to downsyndrome people or OAPs instead of standing by a man who built shopping centers in India and Russia with loans from the now what we call the taxpaper, aka anglo Irish bank. idiots.
Mr Know, its because we support the most vulnerable in society that we are outraged that the 2.8 billion that Quinn offered to pay the State was thrown in his face in favour of a strategy that will cost the most vulnerable billions and thousands of jobs. Yes, taking out Quinn was far more important to our decision makers than the protection of the less well off.
Secondly, Quinn did not borrow money from Anglo to build shopping centres or anything else. You see, I have asked all parties the hard questions and I got full and detailed answers from Quinns and nothing but lies and waffle from the other parties. How much research have you done or are you just soaking up what you and I and everyone else is paying for ie.Anglo propaganda
Typical, buy company cheap, make lots of promises a couple of years later were relocating,
Where does it say they are relocating Anne?
I don’t remember if there was a huge queue of companies looking to take over Quinn Insurance Anne.
Reg, it should not have been taken over never mind gifted to any other company as the Quinn family made a proposal to all relevant parties that would have saved billions for the taxpayers, saved all jobs and created 1700 more jobs and crucially, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO INSURANCE LEVY.
Do you not think that it is a bit strange that the FInancial Regulator met with Liberty Boss very early on in the process and did not meet any other prospective bidders. All is not what it appears.
Feel kinda bad for requesting and getting way cheaper car insurance now… Guess someone has to pay. Awful news at anytime but really bad so close to Christmas . Hope only the people who want to go have to go.
Who wants to leave a perfectly good job!?! Going by the tv clips of staff coming and going from the various offices it’s a fairly young to middle aged workforce!! I’d say they’ll get offered a pittance in redundancy too! But I get where your coming from Claire! In an ideal world eh!?!
I found out of all the companies I looked for an insurance quote from, Liberty were the most awkward. They could do with those 285 jobs and more, because nobody was able to answer the phone to give me a quotation.
Yes Jim, Sean Quinn is responsible for the state of the entire country. Are you really so stupid that you actually believe that? He is partially responsible but the other 90% is the consistently incompetent Government & the greedy fat cat bankers!!!
He’s not entirely responsible for the state of the country. Far from it. But the buck does stop with him for the state of the Quinn group.
What % are the people who voted the government in responsible for?
No, Quinn’s just responsible for the fact I’m going to have to pay an extra 2% on all my insurance premiums probably til the day I die!! Thanks Seanie!!!
No Michelle, I am not stupid but I know who exactly is responsible for the destruction of Quinn Direct. And its not Enda Kenny. Its Sean Quinn.
And next time try to debate a point without insulting somebody. It doesn’t say much for you.
Some anti Quinn comments here are pathetic. If you are so sure that the Quinns are to blame, why not let them have the public inquiry that they are calling for. Hell, it would be an awful lot cheaper than the 80million that we have paid to date for Anglo’s legal fees as they attempt to stop the Quinn family exposing corruption at the very heart of the establishment . Or cheaper than the fat cat salaries we are paying the bankers who ruined our country for generations.
Liberating the workforce.
That’s perfectly ok Liberty.
We, the tax payer, subsidised your entry to the market.
I will not ever knowingly purchase one of your products.
When the hell are the people of Ireland going to stand up to the Irish Government & say ENOUGH!! This is yet another example of how the Taoiseach has consistently been unable to retain jobs & consistently shown incompetency. He should be ensuring job stability & attracting viable business to the country – yet every day more job losses & nobody has job confidence. Today I hear about a group of Irish going to Poland for employment & every day numerous Irish people emigrating to UK/USA/Australia. The Taoiseach is far too fond of ensuring the fat bankers get fatter & enjoying his lavish salary with benefits, which is more than that of the US President & what does he do to earn it? F All, he’s bone idle & incompetent & it is time for him to go – if he was in the private sector he wouldn’t get a job as a toilet cleaner. The Government should be paid on a pure bonus structure & nothing more, so when they show their incompetence they are hit where it hurts-in the pocket!
Load of rubbish. Sean Quinn created this mess in the first place. There was a black hole of several hundred million at the centre of Quinn Insurances finances. At some point it would have come crashing down to the ground and created an unholy mess for all of us if something hadn’t been done.
I have huge sympathy for those who have lost their jobs here but point the finger of blame where it needs to be pointed. I would ask “when the hell are the people of Ireland going to stand up to rogue businessmen who think they are above the laws of the land and entitled to get away with it”. The more we laud and ignore the doings of the Sean Quinns of this country the more likely we are to end up back in a similar mess in another twenty years time.
Don’t know where to start with that Michelle but the Taoiseach doesn’t earn more than the president of the USA. He could still do with taking another cut though.
Ha Ha Jim
Rogue businessmen??
More like
rogue regulator
rogue government
rogue senior civil servants
and our new rogue senior civil servants, namely the senior bankers.
So that makes what Quinn has done okay then does it!?!
So crazy. We got rid of the previous regulator for NOT doing his job. Now you want to get rid of the current regulator for doing his! No wonder this country is in the state its in.
People slag off politicians for being corrupt but seem to have no problems with businessmen who are just as bad. Sean Quinn is in the same mould as Seanie Fitz., David Drumm and Michael Fingleton. The man gambled with his companies, left a black hole in the finances of Quinn Direct because of his bad decisions and since then he and his family have used every trick they could to try and prevent the Irish state and taxpayers for getting what they are owed to the point that he and his son have been jailed for contempt. And no amount of cheerleading will make it any different.
Jim., perhaps you would care to explain why one of the administrators went before a High Court judge for several months after administration and said that it was a profitable company and that there would be NO call on the Insurance Compensation Fund.
@Reg, yes I’m afraid Michelle is correct and that Enda Kenny does earn more than the US president
You’re wrong Keelan. The salary of the US president is $400k, about ?320k. The Taoiseach’s salary is ?200k. It’s a shame how some facts just ruin a good story!
Well done, Reg.
It’s a myth that Obama earns less than Kenny. A myth even perpetuated by Kevin Myers last month.
Some rumours are just too much fun to be quashed it seems.
@Reg I stand corrected!
So this is the vehicle company that Sean Quinn based his 7 year repayment plan on? And people still believe it was viable?? The only reason this company still exists is because we the taxpayers picked up the debt tab from the incompetent & arrogant management which left over a billion euro hole in its reserves. The employees at least have a job, and I feel for those who will be asked to take the redundancy against their wishes. Yet you’ll get the gombeens who will be blind and deny any wrong doing from that family of crooks and jailbirds no matter how much evidence is put in front of them. Thank God he can do no further damage.
Hey Mark
I understand what you are trying to say , however people who from an accountancy background (like yourself) are not normally that good at understanding successful business people,
otherwise all of our successful business people would be accountants.
I known a local accountant that insists on illegally using his clients confidential information to go in competition with his clients,
only to end up loosing his shirt and making a fool of himself when the venture (yet again) fails miserably .
He keeps doing this and then expects his clients to pay him more money to keep up this money loosing farce.
No one uses him now.
I believe Quinn had the ability to rectify things as I believe that he has overcome comparatively bigger challenges in the past.
This is the truth that Anglo, are paying €10′s of millions (and a lot of expensive accountants) to try to hide from the people.
The truth will eventually come out.
Mark, see my comment above about the best predictor of future performance. is past performance. I would like to hear from you also how many people Sean Quinn made redundant in his 40 years in business.
Secondly, since you are so sure that the Quinn proposal could not have worked (What is that base on), would you care to enlighten us about how successful the current strategy is and how much has been recouped to date and how much of our money has been spent by Anglo in this Witch Hunt.
Thirdly, google Quinn/Anglo blogspot and Concerned Irish Citizens. You have a lot to learn.
Patrick O’Brien CEO Liberty Insurance – I don’t think so – big error Journal?
have your say