Politicians call for job loss pow-wow
14-02-2007
by Maxim Kelly

Opposition parties are beginning to sit up and take note of job losses in the high-tech sector ahead of the elections expected in the coming months.

The latest losses -- 70 staff at Alcatel-Lucent's facility in Blanchardstown -- are of particular significance to the west Dublin area where 230 jobs at Creative Labs were cut before Christmas, and the axe still hangs over hundreds more as Xerox is currently reviewing staff numbers at its 1,300-strong west Dublin facility.

Labour's finance spokesperson and local TD, Joan Burton, described the developments as a deeply worrying trend and called on Minister for Trade & Enterprise Micheal Martin to instruct job creation agencies to target the area immediately.

"These jobs are primarily high-end, technological research positions and will be very difficult to replace," said Burton. "These are not old-style jobs in heavy industry, but are based in the knowledge economy, an area that has contributed very significantly to Ireland's economic growth over the past 15 years. This is part of an increasing pattern we have seen, with companies like this choosing to move jobs abroad."

However Minister Martin will no doubt have his eye on his own Cork constituency and surrounding areas ahead of the upcoming election where all 350 staff at Motorola's software centre still face an uncertain future as management review the viability of the operation there. Electronics firm FCI is making 240 people redundant in Fermoy, Co Cork, and the county has also been particularly hard hit by hundreds of job losses across the pharmaceutical and food sectors.

Meanwhile, staff at Nortel, which employs nearly 1,000 staff in Dublin, Belfast and Galway, are yet to hear if the company's worldwide cull of 2,900 positions will affect jobs in Ireland, and redundancies are also reportedly likely at financial software firm Cognotec which employs around 140 staff in Dublin.

The telecoms sector is not immune to this trend of job losses with Vodafone seeking 100 voluntary redundancies and rumours of a similar move imminent at BT, according to a report in Wednesday's Irish Independent.

The fact that many of these high-tech employers are looking to transfer jobs to lower cost economies has prompted Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment spokesman Phil Hogan to call for an All-Party debate on the rising cost of doing business in Ireland.

"This [Alcatel-Lucent] is just the latest in a sequence of crises in the Irish information, communications and technology sector which has seen more than 1,000 jobs thrown into jeopardy in recent weeks," he said.

"Ireland has managed to sustain significant economic growth by attracting foreign investment but the sequence of high-profile job losses in various multinational companies is a worrying trend. It has become common practice for many high-profile companies to engage in global rationalisation as a code word for moving jobs from Ireland's high cost base."

Hogan said an an All-Party debate on how Ireland should tackle intensifying competition from Eastern Europe, India and China is urgently needed.

"The Government cannot afford to bury its head in the sand any longer."