Council chief executive vows to do ‘whatever it can’ to assist Tara Mines

Meath County Council will do whatever it can to relieve the situation over the suspension of operations at Tara Mines, the council chief executive officer told councillors.

Fiona Lawless was speaking following a debate at the July monthly meeting over the mine closure at the mines.

The mine operations in the county were very significant for a number of reasons – it was an incredible wealth creator with 650 directly employed staff but also had a large number of contracted people, putting the overall employed people to over 2,000. “Our hearts go out to them because it is devastating news for them”, she said.

The company was one of the council’s biggest ratepayers so it is a challenge for the council and its officials had been in touch with the mine management a number of times. “We are committed to do whatever we can to work with Tara Mines to see them through this. There is strong confidence in the management team there”

The CE said there had been a number of high level groups that had been in touch with the Tara Mines management “and if there is further news we will keep in touch”.