Foreign investment: HP job cuts expose our vulnerability

HEWLETT-PACKARD is to cut another 25,000-30,000 jobs worldwide due to falling demand for its products and the move towards cloud technology. The latest wave of cuts comes on top of the 55,000 layoffs previously announced by the company.

While there is no immediate indication if this will affect the 4,000 people employed by the company in Ireland, it is likely that there will be some fallout here, considering the magnitude of the job losses. The decision will obviously be of concern to the Government, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, the latter of which is responsible for supporting Irish businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded services.

More importantly, it shows just how fragile our economic recovery can be if there is an over-reliance on attracting international companies to site their manufacturing and services sector here.