Written answers
Thursday, 23 February 2023
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Job Losses
Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline the contact his Department has had with a large multinational company (details supplied) with workforces in counties Louth and Dublin that have announced cuts to its global workforce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8147/23]
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Earlier this month I met with 14 of the leading technology companies with a presence in Ireland on the US West Coast. This provided a valuable opportunity for me to hear directly from enterprise leaders and to highlight Ireland’s strong Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) value proposition. I also met with a broad spectrum of over 60 business leaders on a wide range of topics, including Ireland’s economy, North-South relations and the impacts of Ukraine.
I came away reassured that, despite the recent job loss announcements, the impact on Ireland is relatively small and the tech sector remains very strong.
On 31 January 2023, PayPal’s CEO announced that the company would seek a 7% reduction of its global workforce, or 2,000 people globally. As with any global announcement, it can take some time for the impact at local level to be determined and we currently await detail of the impact on employment in Ireland.
In recent months we have seen job loss announcements from a number of companies in the technology sector. Our first concern is for impacted staff and their families and Government will make all necessary State assistance available to those impacted. In that regard, officials of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, as well as my own Department, will keep Government informed of all developments and they have intensified their engagement with companies in the tech sector.
More particularly, IDA Ireland engages regularly with PayPal as part of the Agency’s ongoing support for the company. The IDA has good relationships with Irish and corporate management at PayPal which is a key employer in the state and the Border Region. Recently, IDA Ireland has actively engaged with PayPal in both Dundalk and Dublin regarding transformation, upskilling and the potential for RD&I activity to be carried out in Ireland. Throughout IDA’s engagement with PayPal, the company has reaffirmed that Ireland is a location is of strategic importance to PayPal.
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