Cork and Sligo hit by 300 job losses in technology firms
In Cork city, Option Wireless, which makes wireless communications products, yesterday said it was making 150 people redundant. It said the first layoffs were likely to take place in January next year, with further redundancies at the end of March. The company will retain just 22 people at its operation at the Kilbarry Industrial Estate in the northside of the city.
It said it had to significantly downsize the Cork operation because of a €20m cost-cut plan by Belgian parent company, Option NV. Much of the work will transfer to what the company called “lower cost” regions in Asia.
Chief operations officer Phillipe Rogge said the job cuts were an inevitable outcome of the market situation.
In May, Option Wireless announced it was to make 55 of its 270 workers redundant from mid-June. That news came less than six months after Tánaiste and Employment Minister Mary Coughlan announced it was to recruit 145 additional staff.
In Sligo, 160 jobs are to go at the Tiscali contact centre in the Finisklin Business Centre.
The company will close down in six months’ time. The news comes just five months after the operation was taken over by British phone and broadband services provider Talk Talk.
Talk Talk said the work being carried out in the Sligo operation will now move to other locations around the country, including Waterford.
Meanwhile, Dublin private jet company JetBird has put about 40 staff on protective notice. The company, which is owned by Irish investment group Claret Capital and a number of private investors is understood to be finding it difficult to raise the €10m in funding necessary to launch its service in Germany.
