Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I heard with great regret last Monday that PayPal was going to let 307 staff go, 135 from the Dublin office in Blanchardstown in my constituency and 175 from its offices in Dundalk. I spoke to the company's representatives earlier this week and they assured me that they remain committed to their 2,000 other staff and will continue to employ approximately 2,000 people in Ireland. They said they had to make this decision as part of a general restructuring of the company, with a reduction in the number of roles not just in Ireland but it may be the case in some other countries too. Unfortunately, the redundancies are unavoidable and I express my sympathy to those who are affected. It must have been a big shock for people to hear that their roles were being made redundant. Consultation is happening with the staff today. The Deputy will appreciate that for very good reasons the company wants to consult and inform staff before it informs public representatives. That is the right thing to do, and it will do that today.

I have received an assurance from the company that the redundancy package it offers will be a good one. I do not know the details of that yet, but I will follow up on it. It is important that if people are being let go, they get a decent redundancy package to help them to get on with their lives and seek employment elsewhere in the economy.

Regarding what the Government can do, it is stepping in to ensure workers know what their entitlements are when it comes to social welfare and other matters, and also to know what their options are when it comes to searching for jobs. Most of these staff are very well skilled and they will be able to find jobs quite quickly in the same sector, where there are many vacancies. However, we need to help them and connect them with those vacancies. They will also be given advice on what is available in terms of a return to education, a return to training and the possibility of setting up their own business. The Government will click in and make sure all that is done.

As regards the nature of the redundancies, I wish to clarify that from the letter the company sent to the Department. It states clearly in that letter that if redundancy cannot be avoided following collective consultation with impacted employees, compulsive redundancies will be required. That collective consultation is occurring now. It is required under law. As a consequence of that I hope it will be possible to ensure that most of these redundancies are voluntary and that compulsive redundancies can be avoided.

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