Concrete business owner hits out at 'squanderers'

Business man Johnny Owens whose concrete supply firm is under continuing threat from the economic recession has said that 'very poor politicians' are to blame for the lay-offs he has had to make in his company this year.To date in 2008 Mr Owens has been forced to lay-off 45 staff at his quarrying and concrete business which is based at Knockdrin and said yesterday (Monday) that he was expecting to be forced to get rid of more workers when the government"s Farm Waste Management Scheme comes to an end in late December.Mr Owens broke his silence over the lay-offs on Saturday"s Marian Finucane show which looked at redundancies across the country and how employers dealt with laying off staff.'I can"t tell you how many more staff I will have to lay off: how long is a piece of rope?' he told the Westmeath Examiner this week. 'I would not say "redundancies": what we are talking about here is lay-offs.'It is heart breaking to have to tell people that have been with us for years that there is no more work for them, it really is an awful thing to have to do.'I built my business from scratch and started off in 1972 with just me and my brother and eventually we got up to employing 130 staff which has now been reduced to 85.'I have never stood still and have always been a goer so where is the help for me?'Mr Owens also hit out at celebrity gloom merchants such as David McWilliams and George Lee as well as blaming the current government for 'squandering' the country"s coffers.'Things will not move forward again until we get some of our confidence back and that won"t happen when you have the Lees and McWilliams spreading doom and gloom everywhere.'I would also like someone to explain how this country got so far into the red. We are bailing out banks for the mistakes they have made but they will show us no mercy when it comes to the crunch. They will still have to get their pound of flesh,' he said.