Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Gerard Brady:
On tech, from 2019, we saw growth of almost 30% in employment in the sector. That has fallen back a bit and there has obviously been threats of redundancies or actual redundancies in the sector, which is very unfortunate for those involved. Taking the broad view over two or three years, however, we are still probably up 20,000 workers in the sector. There is the global element of the cyclicality of the sector and it is facing a downturn for a number of reasons, rising interest rates being one of them. It is still a sector where, if one thinks about it over the long term, it has added a huge number of jobs and probably will continue to do that into the future. It is not a declining sector; it is a sector that is facing a cyclical challenge.