Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney has said his department is continuing to engage with Tara Mines to discuss what assistance could be provided within State aid parameters.
Earlier today the company, Boliden Tara Mines, confirmed it will go ahead with its plans to suspend the operation and temporarily lay off 650 workers in the middle of July.
It said the losses have been driven by several factors including a decline in the price of zinc, high energy prices, general cost inflation and operational challenges.
The Minister met management at Boliden Tara Mines this morning to be briefed on the company's latest position.
Minister Coveney described today as a "difficult day" and said his first concern remains for the impacted staff and their families.
He said this includes the 650 staff employed directly by Boliden, but also staff and companies who have contracts with Tara Mines.
Minister Coveney said a coordinated response from Government is under way "to ensure that staff are supported and everything that can be done will be done".
He said that this work was being led by the Department of Social Protection, Solas, the Education and Training Board, Enterprise Ireland and his own Department.
"Officials in my department and Enterprise Ireland continue to engage with the company to discuss what assistance could be provided to the company to introduce efficiencies and reduce costs, including energy costs, within state aid parameters," Minister Coveney said.
The company said it was with "great regret" that its decision to place the mine under care and maintenance from mid-July is "unavoidable".
General manager Gunnar Nyström said the decision was not taken lightly.
"We believe this is the best course of action to safeguard the long-term future of the mine. We will continue to work constructively with all stakeholders to ensure the operation can re-open as soon as possible."
Management met unions this morning to respond to a series of proposals they put forward in an effort to halt the lay offs.
The company said it reviewed proposals from unions in detail and that some of them had the potential to deliver benefits to the operation in the medium-to-long term.
Unions representing workers at Tara Mines have warned the company they will not leave the mine until outstanding issues have been resolved.
SIPTU said today was a "dark day not only for County Meath, but the whole country".
Earlier, Adrian Kane, divisional organiser for transport, aviation, energy and construction with SIPTU, said the meeting "didn't go very well".
He said workers were "furious" with the decision, which they received in an email while the meeting was still ongoing.
Mr Kane said that this was a very difficult situation and he did not think it had been handled very well by the company.
The three unions representing staff say they have informed the company that there are three or four issues they need to engage on.
He said that these include the care and maintenance period and what numbers of staff will be involved in that, the terms and conditions of workers during a lay off period and how that period will be managed.
"We will not be leaving the mine until all those issues are resolved to our members' satisfaction," Mr Kane said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
He added that another meeting had provisionally been set up for tomorrow and it had also been in contact with the Workplace Relations Commission.
Mr Kane said they would also seek further engagement with the Government, particularly in relation to social protection.
He said the Irish system was out of kilter with the rest of Europe, where workers who were laid off would receive around 60% of their wages.
Mr Kane said this was no longer tenable and that the "Government needs to step up to the table" on this issue.
Unions said there was still no answer from the company on how long this care and maintenance period would last.
A mining contractor based in Navan has confirmed it has temporarily laid off 100 workers based at Tara Mines.
QME said it had 140 workers contracted to the mines and 100 of these were temporarily laid off last week, in light of the recent announcement by Boliden that it plans to suspend the operation in mid July.
The company's website said that QME's mining division undertakes contract mining projects in Ireland and abroad.
It lists Boliden Tara Mines as one of its projects, where it lists more than 14km of development mining, which is the installation of underground services and ore management on surface and underground, among its activities there.
A second contractor working at Tara Mines has confirmed that it has temporarily laid off a number workers.
Priority Drilling said 10-15 of its workers who are contracted to Europe's largest zinc mine have been temporarily laid off.
The company, set-up in 1967, had 45 workers at Tara Mines where it provides exploration drilling services.
