Vol. 541 No. 5
91 Mr. Flanagan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action she will take to maintain and protect jobs in the information communications technology sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23308/01]
Many of the world's leading high-technology companies are experiencing stagnant or falling market demand and have had to retrench their operations worldwide. The Irish operations of the global ICT companies experiencing job losses or closures attribute their difficulties to global factors and not to problems inherent in the Irish economy. They state the causes principally to be loss of sales for their particular product, European and world downturn in the global ICT industry, increasing global competitiveness or over-capacity due to the buoyancy of recent years.
The Government's strategy is to focus intensely on ensuring Ireland remains an attractive location for the ICT sector. This will help to mitigate the worst effects of the downturn and ensure that we are well placed to benefit from the undoubted long-term growth potential of the sector. Key actions include implementing the NDP on schedule, particularly the roll out of infrastructure into the regions, and maintaining the competitiveness of the economy by controlling wage and price inflation. We must also enhance our skills base by continuing to invest in education and training and by promoting an increase in research and development activity through initiatives such as Science Foundation Ireland.
How many job losses in the ICT sector were announced since this House rose for its summer recess? What number of job losses are projected or threatened?
Since the beginning of the year the number of job losses in the foreign and direct investment sector is just over 4,000.
I put to the Minister the importance of having an audit of skills within the industry. Does she agree it is of fundamental importance to be able to contrast jobs and job losses between urban and rural areas and between those engaged in skilled and unskilled labour? There is a world of difference between job losses at a high-skills plant in Dublin, of which we have had a number recently, and the loss of jobs at a plant like that in Macroom in County Cork where the workforce is largely unskilled. Does the Minister have such an audit at her disposal? If so, what plan is there to prioritise unskilled workers who lose their jobs and workers who lose their jobs in rural, isolated areas where there is less choice?
I share the Deputy's view that there is a major difference between the loss of high-tech employment and the loss of low-skilled employment for a host of reasons. In the first instance, a person with a high level of skill is far more employable and we have seen that in recent times where, notwithstanding the difficulties, workers have moved from one employer to another in a matter of days. I agree with him that there is clearly a major difference between more peripheral regions, where things are more difficult, and larger urban areas. Despite those difficulties it is a fact that employment in the economy remains buoyant. The number of applications for work permits continues to be very high, much of it in the low skills area where employers are finding it difficult to recruit locally. In the context of General Semiconductors in Macroom, a number of workers have already been placed in alternative employment, some at Kostal in Mallow, which I opened last Saturday morning.
I agree with Deputy Flanagan that it is important to have a mechanism in place, and we do. As a matter of course when a company announces it is going to close or make people redundant FÁS makes contact with that company. It offers advice and the possibility of on-site training or training nearby if it is a peripheral location or at a local training centre. That is working extremely well. In Donegal in recent years many former Fruit of the Loom workers have now been trained in computer skills and have found new employment. Equally, in the case of the workers in Macroom – and in the case of the workers in Tallaght who may be about to lose their jobs – FÁS has the capacity to offer re-training and up-skilling with a view to helping people find alternative employment.
