Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was and am very concerned about any job losses, which is why, at short notice at the start of the year, I went to the US to meet as many key decision-makers in some of the big tech companies as I could to really understand their mindset about what was happening. The answer we got was that the decisions they were making had very little to do with Ireland. In fact, it was nothing to do with Ireland at all. Instead, it was about reducing global headcount in many of these companies which had expanded extraordinary quickly in the previous 18 months to two years, as it happens probably too quickly during and post the Covid pandemic. Am I saying that all the announcements of job losses in the tech sector are over? We do not know that for sure. We are, of course, following the matter closely but there is also strong growth in the tech sector. For example, Apple, the largest company in the world, is continuing to recruit and take on more people.

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