Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 May 2023
57. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the interactions he and his Department have had with a company (details supplied) following the recent redundancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26459/23]
View answerIn March of this year, Meta's CEO outlined a global restructuring and downsizing indicating that the company would reduce the size of its recruiting team in March and would then announce restructurings and layoffs in its tech groups in late April and business groups in late May. This equated to 10,000 job cuts globally and Meta said it will close around 5,000 "open" roles that had not yet been filled.
Where companies are reducing headcount through redundancies, IDA Ireland works with its client companies to understand the skills profile of impacted staff, and to share relevant profiles with companies that may be hiring. In this regard, and with the support of the 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.
In all such cases, our priority is to assist those losing their current employment and to this end, officials at my Department, through IDA Ireland, will continue to work closely with the company over the coming weeks.
More broadly, the technology base in Ireland has been building for over 40 years, and will continue to grow in the future, despite the current challenges. Technology is now pervasive in all business sectors and the need for tech skills across the entire industrial base remains strong. In many cases, the impacted skills are highly transferrable. In the meantime, Meta remains very committed to Ireland and the Irish operation will continue to be integral to Meta’s global operations.
