SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has requested a meeting with the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke today over fears that a significant number of jobs could be lost at HMRC tax office in Derry.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan
It is understood HMRC is planning to cut over 200 jobs throughout the North and that as many as 77 could be lost at its Derry office on Duncreggan Road.
Revealing he had sought a meeting with the Treasury, Mr Durkan said he would be defending the jobs in my own constituency as well as those in Enniskillen and Newry.
He said he hoped other parties would do so in the “same spirit” in the fight to to save DVLA jobs in Coleraine.
Mr Durkan said: “This is not just about protecting jobs but a quality of customer care as well.
“Government are removing face-to-face customer contact, and we have seen when other operations have been centralised to England this results in poorer standards of service for people in Northern Ireland.
“Last year, I co-sponsored an Early Day Motion at Westminster calling on the government to stop its programme of job cuts in Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
“The parliamentary motion stressed that government plans to cut staff by 10,000 throughout the UK by 2014-15 and its closing of offices would significantly harm the performance of HMRC and its ability to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.”
Mr Durkan concluded: “I have therefore consistently stressed the quality of service of these hard-working public servants, and have called on government to reverse these damaging cuts.”
