Tech redundancies and hiring slowdown
Deputy Hayes warned that Meta and Covalen redundancies and weak graduate hiring point to a worsening tech jobs outlook. The Minister said enterprise agencies are helping affected workers find new roles, but the Deputy dismissed the response as mere words.
Over the past number of weeks, Meta and Covalen have announced redundancies totalling over 1,000 job losses here in Dublin. This comes on the back of a severe stalling in graduate hiring in Ireland, leaving many young people without an economic future, as if it was not hard enough under this Government. I have been speaking with many young tech workers in my constituency who are deeply afraid that the artificial intelligence, AI, bubble is bursting and they will be left with nowhere to go. I have to say that as the party with the Ministries in finance and enterprise, Fine Gael is asleep at the wheel on this. It has no plan for the jobs fallout from the AI revolution. It has doubled down on an economic model that exposes our people to the decisions of foreign boardrooms and it has no vision for the future of the Irish economy. What is this Government going to do to actually provide a robust jobs future for people in this country beyond mere words of sympathy?
Comment on this
First, I acknowledge that a number of hundred people have lost their jobs this week. I have no doubt that it is a very difficult time for them and many of their families. I stress that our enterprise agencies, first and foremost, are trying to assist in whatever way they possibly can those who are impacted to help them to find alternative employment. This includes sharing the skills profiles of the employees who have been impacted to companies who may be hiring with multinationals in IDA client-based or indigenous companies throughout Enterprise Ireland. On top of that, IDA Ireland is in regular contact with the leadership, as is the Minister, to offer any support we can in this regard. We all know that this something that has been coming down the track for some time. The introduction of AI means there is going to be a restructuring in companies like this. What we are trying to do - I mentioned this earlier - is focus on how we as a country and the EU as a whole can be more competitive. This means not only looking at other markets, but also embracing AI to see how new forms of jobs can come out of this as well. It is quite competitive and is one of our priorities; it is why we will be hosting an AI strategy summit in October of this year.