UPDATE: More than 315 staff at Cardinal Health in the Sragh Industrial Estate facility in Co Offaly have been laid off by the medical devices company today, with a local TD saying the expected job losses would be as a “body blow” to the town of Tullamore.
The company closed operations from 4pm yesterday to facilitate all staff attending a meeting this morning. Some 315 full-time employees – as well as contracted cleaning and catering staff – will be affected, with a shutdown expected to be completed in March 2026.
Offaly Live said that “staff were told that cost pressures were the reason for the decision to end production in Tullamore and the US-owned multinational mentioned sister plants in Costa Rica and Mexico as possible alternative locations for manufacturing.”
Talks on the detail of redundancy packages will begin soon and staff are to return to work on Monday. One employee said she felt management had been “very fair” this morning.
“They said we’ll get six weeks redundancy (per year of service) and the two weeks statutory. [The plant] will be phased out over 20 months,” said the worker.
Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan has said she has made urgent representations to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke following what she describes as ‘news akin to a body blow for the town of Tullamore.’
“This is devastating news and one that demands all agencies of state to respond as part of a concerted and unified effort to save these jobs,” said Deputy Nolan.
“My heart goes out to the workers and their families at what must be a truly unnerving time.”
“Cardinal Health is a major employer. It will be the equivalent in relative terms to Leixlip losing Intel. Needless to say that would be a like a punch to the gut for Tullamore and indeed the midlands more widely.”
“Government needs to take action immediately to try and rescue whatever jobs can be rescued or supported,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
The company, originally founded as Sherwood Medical in 1982, has changed hands multiple times over the years and is now owned by an American multinational health care services company, Cardinal Health.
The medical devices plant has been considered a huge contributor to the local economy, but in 2012 some 150 employees were let go.
Ahead of the meeting, SIPTU Organiser Ashling Dunne told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the union had not been told anything by the company, adding that “this has completely come out of the blue”.