Varadkar 'not unduly concerned' about tech layoffs

Leo Varadkar said that all three will "honour their legal obligations" with regards to redundancy packages.

The Tánaiste says that he is "not unduly concerned" about potential layoffs in the tech sector but says that he is "worried enough" to have been in contact with firms.

Leo Varadkar told RTÉ's Prime Time that large tech firms Twitter, Meta and Intel have made contact with his Enterprise department in recent days to alert it of potential redundancies.

He said that all three will "honour their legal obligations" with regards to redundancy packages.

All three companies have signalled in recent days that they will cut jobs. Stripe, the payments firm owned by the Limerick Collison brothers, also outlined plans to cut jobs last week.

Mr Varadkar said that those decisions are being made in headquarters in California and that "it's not like a plant in Ireland being closed where you might be able to do something to change the decision or intervene in some way or provide financial support".

"These are global decisions being made in headquarters on the West Coast [of the United States], and they will be applied to Ireland in a certain way."

Asked by Sarah McInerney how worried he is, Mr Varadkar said: "[I'm] worried enough to have spent most of the last couple of days on phone calls, in meetings trying to get on top of the situation trying to get as much information as we could, but not unduly concerned.

"I don't want to downplay the seriousness of anyone losing their job, let alone hundreds of people but we have a very well-diversified economy in Ireland now.

"It's not like 10 or 20 years ago. The tech sector is important.

"It's 6% of our employment, 16% of our economy, but we've other sectors that are important to and are expanding - pharmaceuticals, for example, medical devices, financial services, aviation. For example, Ryanair just announced their best results ever."

Mr Varadkar likened Ireland's corporation tax take to having Kerry footballer David Clifford on a team, saying that you "don't take it for granted".

He said, however, that the Government cannot know yet how much corporation tax would be lost because of job cuts.