Mary Moran (Labour)

I offer my sympathy to the employees of TalkTalk and all the families and workers that have experienced the terrible heartbreak of redundancy. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, will be familiar with the devastating blow to my own area of Dundalk with the announcement that 100 jobs are to be lost in the Vodafone call centre in the town. From being one of the most industrialised towns in the country, Dundalk has in recent years suffered a number of horrific job cuts and closures, including the downsizing of Xerox, the closure of McArdles brewery, PJ Carroll and job cuts at Harp Lager, Keytronics and ABB. The list goes on.

As a Border town, we are in constant competition with the lower VAT rates offered in Northern Ireland to seduce consumers away from doing their business in the town and surrounding areas. For a company to suddenly announce it is taking its business out of the country without due warning or redundancy packages is an insult to the loyalty of the staff who worked there, the town in which it was based and our country. For every job lost in these companies, another two are put at risk in the shops, restaurants and entertainment venues in the area.

Vodafone Ireland is a very profitable business. Last year it earned €120 million in profits from Irish people and a staggering €9.5 billion worldwide. Its CEO earns a whopping salary of €932,000 per annum in addition to bonus payments of €900,000. Vodafone's move to India and Egypt will probably save it some money but how can one measure the suffering inflicted on those who lose their jobs? I have met representatives from Vodafone on several occasions and most of them read about their fate on Facebook, which was insulting to them. Many of them will be forced to emigrate as a result of the decision. Their hopes and dreams have been reduced to tatters.

Some of the e-mails I received proposed alternative solutions, including one which suggested that it is time for Irish people to react to companies, like Vodafone, which transfer their business abroad by boycotting their services. In this way we would make our voices heard by these multimillion euro companies.