Jobs must be of high value

WHILE job-cuts in the Logica-CMG group were not entirely unexpected, the announcement will send shock-waves through the telecom sector where, as yet, there is no end of the worldwide crisis in sight.

Nor is there any likelihood of the situation improving over the next few years according to the IDA.

With the global market already reeling from the blood letting which saw major companies wiped out, Ireland is now suffering the knock-on effects with hundreds of job losses Yesterday’s loss of 315 jobs in Dublin and Cork follows a merger between two software companies leading to 1,400 redundancies in Europe out of a worldwide workforce of 24,000.

Though some lay-offs were anticipated, nobody expected the axe to fall with such severity on the Cork research centre which is closing with 95 job losses. Hopefully, the highly qualified staff will find new jobs despite the global downturn.

This grim news underlines the threat posed to Ireland by low cost countries and reiterates the need for greater emphasis to be placed on high value activities such as research and development and product innovation by the IDA.