Dell: what should be done now

I WOULD like to express my heartfelt sympathy to all who have lost their jobs and who are otherwise in any way affected by the end of production at Dell in Limerick.

While I feel that much more could have been done to prevent this disaster, I wish to make two suggestions for mitigating it.

EU competition rules will not allow us, as an older EU country, to do as Poland has done — give State aid to secure jobs.

However, we can offer State aid for diversification projects in areas such as training, the environment and research and development.

I have called on Dell to consider introducing projects in these areas in Limerick and I would encourage the Government to offer them State aid as generously as EU laws allow, should Dell be willing to consider this option.

Further, I would call on the Government to change its policy in relation to the taxing of redundancy packages and to consider forgoing taxation where a package is being used for training, education or being invested in new business or new employment. Now it is abundantly clear there are not 2,000 spare jobs in the Limerick region and a redundancy package used well may present opportunities to create employment, while encouraging people to help themselves.

Those who are being laid off might also consider combining their settlement with others to create new employment opportunities.

With unprecedented levels of unemployment, I would ask the Government to see the non-taxation of well-invested redundancy packages as a positive strategy for home-grown and indigenous enterprise.

It is bad enough that Dell has cut jobs but it would be even worse if our taxation policies prevented new jobs from being created by the Government’s confiscation of a significant portion of people’s redundancy packages in tax.

Kathy Sinnott MEP

‘St Joseph’

Ballinabearna

Ballinhassig

Co Cork