News that 70 employees were sent home from a Tipperary mushroom farm was reported by Tipperary TD, and Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Food and Horticulture, Jackie Cahill on his Fianna Fail website on the 31st of August.
The doubt hanging over the fate of the 70 jobs was put down to sterling’s slide following the brexit vote.
Later that day news sources confirmed that Schiele and McDonald Mushrooms told staff that it's shutting up shop, battered by a sharp decline in sterling against the euro, which has made its 17-year-old business unviable. Managing director Peter Mc Donald said the company was losing between €10,000 and €12,000 a week since the June vote.
McDonald told the Irish Independent: "It's down to price," he said. "Your price is based on the strength of sterling. The whole thing is further compounded by the fact that Brexit has not only devalued the pound but brought a lot of uncertainty with it. That brings a lack of confidence."
Schiele and McDonald Mushrooms started with just 12 people in 1999 and grew to the point where it employed 70 people and exported most of its 1.5 million kg of mushrooms to the UK.