Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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146. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the engagement he has had with a company (details supplied) in relation to its announcement of 240 redundancies in its Irish branch; if he has urged the company to adopt a voluntary redundancy first approach to redundancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13218/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I met with senior officials at Google in January of this year and our discussions covered a number of topics including the announcement that the company would seek to reduce its global headcount by 12,000. At that meeting the company expressed its commitment to having detailed consultations with their staff in Ireland on the job reductions, as well as restating its commitment to Ireland, which is its largest operation outside the United States.

Furthermore, my Department received a collective redundancy notification from the company on 22nd February and I understand that the collective redundancy process is currently ongoing. In that regard, all employers considering collective redundancies are required under the Protection of Employment Act 1977, as amended, to consult with employees’ representatives for at least 30 days to discuss the possibility for avoiding redundancy, reducing the number of employees affected and the selection criteria for redundancy.

Where companies are reducing headcount through redundancies, IDA Ireland, as a matter of course, works with those companies to understand the skills profile of impacted staff, and to share relevant profiles with companies that may be hiring. In this regard, with the support of IDA, Enterprise Ireland recently ran a webinar to discuss supports available to anyone considering starting their own business in Ireland.

IDA Ireland also works with companies to understand if targeted training support could be an assistance in training and retaining impacted teams and mitigating losses through the use of skills diagnostic tools and training support programmes.