Coughlan admits visit to Dell HQ just ‘a process’

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has admitted that travelling to Dell headquarters in Texas last month was just “a process” which was not expected to stop the announcement that 1,900 jobs would be lost.

Dell workers soon to lose their jobs will benefit from about €5,260 each in an EU hardship fund on top of their redundancy package which will be six weeks’ pay per year of service with Dell, capped at 52 weeks.

The Government expects to receive €10 million from the European Union globalisation fund, which is a reserve of €500m to “help reintegrate into the labour market workers made redundant due to changing global trade patterns”.

In an interview with yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Coughlan, indicated that the bad news of the Dell jobs was already inevitable when she and Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea visited the company headquarters in December.

“There was a process there, but it was clear to us that they were changing their manufacturing basis,” she said.

“It’s very important that Dell continues to have a substantial presence here. We have 1,100 people in Cherrywood and almost 1,000 people in Limerick so we have to sustain those here,” said the Tánaiste.

Ms Coughlan said it was not up to the Government to inform workers of Dell plans: “Their view is, rightly, that their workers were the company’s first port of call, and so it wasn’t my job to indicate to the Limerick workers what the details were. I didn’t have them anyway,” she said.

Foreign direct investment is looking “very good” in the pipeline, she reassured the worried public, adding that she expects to make a “considerable number of announcements” between now and Christmas.

Responding to criticism of her own performance since taking on the role of Tánaiste last summer, she said she has been on “a sharp learning curve”.

She said claims that she was inexperienced are “just because I am 43”.

The Tánaiste also dismissed suggestions that junior ministers should give up their posts to save money: “People have lost the run of themselves. That discussion is a distraction to the real issue — that we have a serious shortfall between our revenues, our tax base and our expenditure.”