Bank job losses and economic recovery
Eamon Gilmore highlights nearly 1,000 newly announced job losses and calls employment and economic recovery the country’s urgent priority. The Taoiseach regrets the Bank of Scotland losses, notes that 850 jobs will remain, and attributes the restructuring to the bank’s international withdrawal from unprofitable markets.
Some 760 jobs are to go in the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), while yesterday it was announced that 175 jobs are to go at Boston Scientific in Galway. That is almost 1,000 jobs in two days, on top of the 436,000 people who are already out of work as we saw from last week's live register figures. The biggest and most urgent issue currently facing this country is to get the economy repaired and recovered, and to get people back to work. I was interested to hear the comments made last night by Mr. Craig Barrett, the businessman credited with bringing Intel to Ireland. According to one report, he deconstructed the notion that Ireland could recreate its Celtic tiger economy simply by cutting costs. He advocated a prescription in three parts: smart people, smart ideas and the right environment.
We have been hearing a lot from the Government about the smart economy. In December 2008, the Taoiseach announced an innovation task force, but did not set it up until June 2009. It was supposed to report by the end of 2009, but it has not done so and we do not know when it will report. Last year, the Taoiseach promoted another good idea, which was to establish an international content services centre. The Labour Party agrees with that idea and in pursuit of it Deputy Quinn tabled a question to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, since seemingly her Department is responsible for initiatives to promote job creation. We were a bit surprised to receive a query on foot of the parliamentary question asking us to explain what we meant by an international content services centre. Can the Taoiseach say what progress has been made towards establishing such a centre? When and where will it be established? What budgetary investment will be provided for it by the Government and what is the estimated number of jobs it will create?
Comment on this
I understand that Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is to make the announcement this evening. I regret the fact that those workers will lose their jobs. I understand that redundancy terms will be offered. It is part of a bank restructuring worldwide, with institutions pulling back from markets which are not profitable for them. I am pleased that a substantial part of the business of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will remain with 850 jobs involved. This decision should not affect other players in the market. I have been assured that all customers of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will be looked after and will not be disadvantaged by the changes.
Boston Scientific has informed IDA Ireland that 175 people on temporary contract will be released from their contracts. That is against a background where Boston Scientific continues to employ 3,000 people in Galway. It has a large number of temporary employees to facilitate a ramp-up-ramp-down process as volumes dictate.
As regards the Deputy's question on the innovation task force, I told him last week during parliamentary questions that the penultimate meeting was last week and it was likely that a report would be available by the end of this month. That is a month or six weeks later than expected, but a number of groups have been working on it. That valuable work will be beneficial.
The international content services centre will be worked on through the digital hub in liaison with the IDA. They will be working hard to see in what way we can bring that particular project forward. It is part of a number of projects concerned with identifying new areas, including Internet technologies, internationally-traded services, the green-clean tech area and the food industry. In such areas, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland can prepare a jobs strategy even in the context of this year when we expect unemployment to peak, although jobs will still be created. The churning of jobs between losses and gains continues. There is no doubt that the public finance position we are bringing forward is the best way, and a prerequisite for ensuring that we get more jobs into the economy. In that manner, these projects can obtain support and be brought from concept to fruition.
As I understand it, those are the four points the Deputy raised in his question and those are the answers.