Government must respond to continued job losses in Ireland

Labour workers’ rights spokesperson Marie Sherlock has demanded government action in response to the spate of job cuts in the tech, retail and hospitality sectors.

Senator Sherlock said:

“It has been a very dark number of months for workers in Ireland with a range of job cuts announced impacting people throughout the country.

"The Minister today has incredibly said that the worst is over in terms of job cuts, however we are yet to be told of the full scale of job losses in many of companies.

“There is a real concern here in terms of job losses in the tech sector and what it means for tech workers, but my greater concern is what impact these job cuts will have on companies that depend on the tech firms themselves.

“This is a time of great uncertainty in the labour market and it will be difficult for those who find themselves out of work, to get back on their feet in the short term.

“In such a precarious labour landscape, Minister Coveney must now step up and reform the TBESS scheme as it’s clearly failing to stop companies going out of business.

"We also need to see a proper short-term work scheme put in place to protect vulnerable workers from these headwinds.

“The galling thing about this is it is the tech companies that overshot the runway in terms of adding jobs in recent years, yet, as always, it is the workers who pay the highest price.

“In recent years, the Labour Party has identified the need for the state to diversify our economy more generally. There is an excessive reliance on foreign direct investment for high value, high paying jobs.

"While we want to see Ireland remain an attractive location for FDI, the overall industrial policy approach needs to change. 

“All the warning signs are there and Government must now heed them. As a country we need to get serious on developing a new national industrial policy that will continue to ensure that we can attract the kind of high quality foreign direct investment but it must also ensure good, secure, union jobs while also growing our indigenous enterprise base.”