Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about job losses in the tech sector. What has been happening internationally has been described by some as a jobs massacre. I believe that more than 30,000 jobs have been lost globally in the first six weeks of this year. I want to talk about how this impacts the area I represent, as a Deputy for Cork North-Central, the Cork city area. We are expecting details in the next week of job losses at VMware in Ballincollig and Blizzard in Blackpool.

This affects 364 jobs in Ballincollig and 164 at Blizzard, giving a total of 500 jobs. Those job losses will have a knock-on effect in the city and region. That particularly relates to VMware, which is a key player on the tech scene in the Cork area. There will be a lot of people, many of them with families, kids and mortgages, coming onto the tech job market at the same time. Does Mr. O'Rourke accept there will be a pinch point, for want of a better phrase, in respect of tech jobs in Cork in the next couple of months? What steps have been taken or will be taken to find replacement jobs and investment in that regard?