Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

88. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline the engagement that he, along with his Department and the IDA, have had with the State’s tech sector in the past three months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62055/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My main concern is for the staff and their families who will be affected by down-sizing in certain tech companies. We will assist any employees affected as they seek alternative employment or other opportunities.

As a country we are close to full employment, with high demand for tech, marketing and other skills across all sectors. There is a strong pipeline of new investments from overseas and within Ireland in a range of sectors, including tech, and we expect many positive announcements in the coming months.

IDA’s annual employment figures, announced yesterday, were exceptionally good – 24,000 net new jobs and over half of all new investment in regional locations. Still, in the face of such global uncertainty, we are likely to see companies adopt a cautious approach, so slower growth is likely in 2023.

When the uncertainty in the global tech sector began to emerge a few weeks ago, I convened a meeting with senior IDA and Enterprise Ireland staff along with Ministers of State Damien English and Dara Calleary. I issued a press release after that meeting on 7 November stating that we had asked for engagement with the major tech companies to be intensified, through the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

Since then, I have engaged with the companies directly through my own office, through officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment and its agencies. I wanted to convey at those meetings that I was available to help in any way that I or the Government could do so. I also wanted to receive assurances that the companies would adhere to their statutory obligations, and we have received those assurances.

As the Deputy will be aware, we published a new White Paper on Enterprise last week setting out ambitious targets for the indigenous and multinational sectors.

Notwithstanding the recent retrenchment in the tech sector, the future is digital. There is going to be more data, more robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and autonomous transport. There will be a huge expansion of the tech sector in the medium term and we will make sure that Ireland is at the forefront of that.