| Hundreds to lose their jobs as slowdown
bites  By
Niamh Hennessy
THE Irish economy was dealt a massive blow last week as almost 500 workers
lost their jobs in 24 hours.
Four different companies announced plans to lay off workers adding to
a spate of bad news on the domestic jobs front across Ireland.
This brings the number of job losses in Ireland to almost 2,000 this month
spelling disaster for the economy amid fears of a global slowdown.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has taken drastic measures to try to rectify the
situation by devoting part of his trip to the United States to try to
lure five financial services companies to Ireland to counter the loss
of manufacturing jobs.
Mr Ahern said: “We are losing some jobs particularly in the assembly
end to Eastern Europe where the cost base is far lower.”
The job losses announced last week ranged from Waterford-based pharmaceutical
firm Sanofi Aventis to mobile phone operator O2 Ireland.
Multinational Sanofi Aventis said it was closing a manufacturing facility
in Waterford with the loss of 200 jobs blaming falling sales and growing
costs for the decision.
O2 Ireland meanwhile is looking for 100 compulsory redundancies following
a review of its operation.
A spokesperson said a number of roles at the firm have become redundant
in the wake of rapidly-changing technology.
The move follows a similar one by its rival Vodafone earlier this year.
Another 170 workers are also likely to lose their jobs after the High
Court ordered the winding-up of a packaging company earlier last week.
IreTex failed to find an investor to back a multi-million rescue package
after it lost a key contract with computer giant Dell.
IreTex has been in business in Limerick, Kildare and Meath for 30 years
and continued to employ 170 after laying-off 80 earlier this year.
In Carlow a further 40 jobs are to be shed at engineering firm Grangeford
Precast which is owned owned by Concast due a significant slowdown in
business.
Lower cost locations are set to benefit from the loss of jobs in Ireland
according to industry insiders.
“This is going to continue to happen as India makes itself more
accessible to business,” said Gabriel McCarrick, head of Enterprise
Ireland’s office in Delhi.
“There will be job losses but the only way to keep a business sustainable
is by moving parts of it to the most economic cost base,” he said
adding that some Irish companies would go out of business if they were
unable to outsource work to India. |
