Written answers

Thursday, 20 February 2025

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Job Losses

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he is aware of the prospect of job losses at a company (details supplied) ; to outline the efforts he is making to mitigate job losses; the efforts to support workers at risk of redundancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6409/25]

Photo of Peter BurkePeter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Workday established a presence in Ireland via acquisition in 2008 when it acquired Cape Clear, a Dublin-based software company. Employment has increased from the initial 25 employed in Cape Clear in 2008 to over 2,000 today, drawn from 67 different countries. The Dublin office has become Workday’s EMEA (Europe the Middle-East and Africa) HQ with enterprise technical support, sales/marketing, HR, legal, real estate and finance activities. It is also the EU Centre for its Product Development and Infrastructure Engineering teams.

On Wednesday February 5th last, Workday announced plans, via an "8-k Investor SEC Filing" to reduce its global workforce by circa 8.5%. It is the first major layoff in Workday’s history. The company has said that it announced these plans as it is seeking to pivot structures and resources to prioritise investments such as AI. Consequently, this will negatively impact on certain roles as the company restructures. Workday has also indicated that it will continue to invest in strategic areas of the business and prioritise resources and structures to meet customer and market demands. In these regards, Ireland is Workday’s European EMEA headquarters and also a significant product and engineering hub, thus making it a really highly strategic location for the company.

Last week, my Department received a Collective Redundancy Notification indicating that some 142 staff are to be made redundant by the company as part of its global downsizing. My foremost concern is with those employees and their families who will now be directly impacted. Government will be on hand to provide supports to those who need it, which include:

• Provision of a detailed skills profile for the employees on the site; and when individuals will be available, which can be shared with other potential employers.

• Recruitment opportunities through identification and connection with other employers who may be hiring across the locality and wider region.

• Information sessions by the Department of Social Protection's Intreo Office to impacted employees on social welfare services and employment support services to support impacted employees’ transition to new employment opportunities.

• Identification and provision of training and further education opportunities for employees e.g. ETBs; Skillnet; Universities.

• Exploring opportunities to start your own business through LEOs and Enterprise Ireland.

IDA Ireland is fully engaged with the company both in Ireland and at Corporate level and remains in close contact with them at this time.

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