15,000 jobs under threat in hi-tech industries

UP TO 15,000 jobs in the hi-tech industry are under threat, IDA Ireland has warned.

Spokesman Colm Donlon said Dell, which employs almost 4,000 people in Limerick and Wicklow, has cut 1,300 jobs over the past 18 months due to the global slowdown. And a multinational source also warned the company will shut down here within three years and relocate abroad.

“There is an 80% chance Dell will be gone within three years,” he said.

Recently Dell reaffirmed its commitment to Ireland, but Mr Donlon stressed that all of the 300 foreign firms, employing approximately 45,000 people, were at risk.

One hundred of these mostly US companies based here are at high risk of cutting more jobs, said the IDA.

The IDA is treating the transition period in the hi-tech sector with the greatest urgency.

This follows the loss of more than 1,000 jobs earlier this week when 3Com announced its decision to close with the loss of 640 jobs. The same day Schneider Electric said it was cutting 265 staff jobs.

In the last three years, more than 9,000 jobs have been lost in the multinational technology sector, though 4,000 were created over the same period.

“There is no such thing as a safe company. All of them feel under pressure and are constantly watching their backs to ensure they are meeting the stringent cost and other demands placed on them by the parent companies,” Mr Donlon said.

He cited Intel in Leixlip and Apple in Cork as prime examples.

Ten years ago Apple was under severe pressure and came close to leaving Ireland.

One of the huge problems facing Ireland is that we can no longer compete on the basic production level.

It costs $12 an hour to make something here while the same job can be done for $1 an hour in China and in Eastern Europe, said Mr Donlon.

Meanwhile, the Society of St Vincent de Paul said struggling self-employed people were partly responsible for a 115% increase in calls to its service in the first six months of this year.

“There’s an increasing number of people calling who we haven’t seen before. They’re small service operators such as a printing works, a woman running a therapy business, a man with a transport company.

“Business goes down due to the economic downturn, bills mount up and yet they’re not entitled to anything from the State,” said vice-president of social policy John Monahan.

He also said any attempt by the Government to cut 5,000 jobs in the Community Employment Scheme would be “absolutely insane”.