Government cutbacks lead to RRI layoffs

JIM CONNNOLLY, the founder and chairman of Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) has confirmed the company has recently made three people redundant.
The RRI workforce now consists of just one part-time employee and Mr Connolly, who works for the group, which was established in 1990, on a voluntary basis.
“In terms of Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) making people redundant, there’s absolutely no secret whatsoever about it. Cutbacks in Government support, which we used to get from the Department of the Environment, started in 2008 and this year have been reduced to a fraction of what it was. Funding will be absolutely gone from next year,” Mr Connolly told The Clare Champion.
“I alerted the board of Rural Settlement, when we had our AGM, telling them it looked like we would not be able to continue and stay solvent. That came to pass and three people were made redundant at the one time. Nobody was dismissed. They were just made redundant. The jobs aren’t there,” he added.
Mr Connolly, who has recently established a new political party, Irish Citizens’ Party, said RRI’s sole part-time employee is responsible for the management of RRI’s 21 houses.
“What we have done is kept on the part of our operations, which is managing the 21 social houses that we have built in Clare. On that basis, we’re continuing to manage those. The longest-serving staff member has been kept on who is our financial administrator in any event and would have been the only one able to do it. She is part-time and I continue, as I always have done, in a voluntary capacity. That’s why, in a voluntary capacity, I’m speaking to you, while fixing a sceptic tank in one our houses,” he concluded. Since its establishment, RRI has helped hundreds of families to relocate, mostly from Dublin, to West Clare.