IDA warns of more telecoms job cuts

THE IDA has warned of more cutbacks in the telecoms sector following the loss of more than 300 jobs at the mobile phone software company Logica-CMG in Dublin and Cork.

A total of 315 people are to be laid off after the British group announced the effects of a major rationalisation programme on its Irish operations yesterday.

News of the job losses was not unexpected after a €791m merger between Logica and its Anglo-Dutch rival CMG was completed just last month.

However, an IDA spokesperson admitted the scale of the job losses here had caused some surprise.

Around 220 jobs will go at the company’s main Irish base at the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin. Only 100 employees, who are involved in the support services area of Logica-CMG’s business, will remain as part of the group’s Irish operations.

In Cork, there will be a complete shutdown of the company’s software development centre which was opened by CMG in 1999. All 95 employees at the University Business Centre on Curraheen Road in the city will lose their jobs.

The IDA spokesperson said further losses among foreign-owned telecom firms could not be ruled out as the sector was showing no signs of recovery.

“However, the trend would appear to be one of cutbacks rather than closures,” the spokesperson said. “The telecoms sector really is going through a difficult time at the moment and we would anticipate that there will be no recovery for a number of years.”

A spokesperson for Logica-CMG said talks had begun with its workers in Dublin and Cork about a redundancy package. However, he expected most people would be let go “within weeks, rather than months”. Tánaiste and Employment Minister Mary Harney said the cutbacks at Logica-CMG were “disappointing and unexpected”.

Ms Harney said the company’s decision was a result of the downturn in the global telecom sector and the merger between Logica and CMG.

“The challenge facing us now is to ensure we continue to get the fundamentals in our economy right so we are better placed than others to benefit from the turnaround when it comes.”