THERE is much anger after it was announced the Fermanagh tax office was to close in the coming years, with the loss of 40 jobs to the local area.
Last Thursday the HMRC announced their office at Abbey House in Enniskillen was to be shut in 2017/2018. The planned closure is part of their ten-year modernisation programme that will see regional offices close across the UK and the opening of regional centres, including one in Belfast which will employ between 1,300 and 1,600 full-time staff. The HMRC have said the programme is designed “to create a tax authority of the future” and to save the UK £100m each year.
Gayle Matthews, industrial officer for Northern Ireland for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), said the union strongly opposed the closure of the office at Abbey House. She said no quality assessment had been carried out on what impact the closure of the office would have on either the local community or the staff, many of whom she said would not be able to relocate to the new regional centre in Belfast.
“We have been engaging with the staff since last week and they are very, very angry,” she said. “It’s especially upsetting for them given the history of the building, which was bombed in the past. These are people who were putting their lives at risk to do a job and now they are being left on the scrap heap.”
Cllr Raymond Farrell said he was “bewildered” by the closure decision, and would be writing to the Secretary of State calling for it to be reversed. The Independent unionist expressed concern for the staff and said: “The west is becoming increasingly a public service wilderness and our public representatives need to collectively sit down together to devise a strategy that not only protects but enhancing public and private job opportunities.”
Speaking to the Fermanagh Herald last week Jim Harra, HMRC director general of business tax, said they would do all they could to accommodate those who wished to transfer to either Belfast or Derry, which will not close until 2021, including paying travel expenses for five years. He said HMRC would also provide training and support for those who wished to enter the private sector, and said there could possibly be redundancies at the office.
“We’re having one-to-one conversations with staff in all offices, about what is best for them. They may want to relocate and if not we are looking to see what support we can offer them to help find other employment,” said Mr Harra, who said the decision had been taken on a UK-wide basis and the HMRC planned to close 170 regional offices and open 13 regional centres across the UK.
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