March 10, 2009: Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Brian Cowen and Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan at the Merrion Hotel to announce that Hewlett Packard is to create 500 jobs at its base in Leixlip, Co Kildare.
This afternoon: The General Manager of the HP Inc site in Leixlip County Kildare, Maurice O’Connell walks back in to his plant after speaking to the media to confirm that 500 employees are to lose their jobs.
Listen: HP General Manager Addressing The Media In Leixlip On The Closure Of HP Inc. (KFM)
Pics: Rollingnews
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but, but, we promised them sweetheart tax deals, they promised us “high tech jobs”,…
We’ve kept our end of the bargain, sure aren’t we going to court to defend the multinationals right to evade taxes?
It just doesn’t make any sense …. to a blushirt
Of course, the 500 people losing their jobs are thinking about blue shirts, would you ever just stop.
It’s sad that the workers in Leixlip lost their jobs, but there are still loads of tech companies in Ireland employing thousands upon thousands of people, so not sure how valid your point was (whatever it was meant to be).
My point is, that the policy of giving multinationals tax evading carte blanche in exchange for jobs will ALWAYS lead to Days like this.
A day when they (he multinational) feel that they’ve scammed enough money out of the Ireland and will move to another country willing to offer them a new tax evading plan….
We got 5 * 500 years high tech jobs out of them Dav. Get your head around this. How much would those people have cost us in social welfare otherwise?
just think what 5years of proper corporation tax revenue would have earned the nation…
That too Dav. I do think about that.
But here’s the thing. Do you ever consider alternative viewpoints?
HP have been in Ireland since 1995. In that time, thousands of people have worked there, earning good money, spending money in shops and on local services, in turn supporting other jobs.
Would you prefer that we set our corporation tax at a level that would not attract investment? We wouldn’t have to worry at all about job losses at MNCs then, given as we wouldn’t have any of these jobs in the first place.
The loss of 500 jobs is sad on a personal level for all concerned of course.
But remember one euro in six of the total private sector payroll in Ireland is by US-owned firms. This is DIRECT payroll. Not second-round ‘multiplier’ stuff.
Foreign-owned firms tend to pay double what Irish-owned ones do.
It is empirically dubious to claim that they do not have a large and meaningful real economic impact in Ireland.
“Foreign-owned firms tend to pay double what Irish-owned ones do.”
I’m going to have to call bulls*it on that…source please? An example why that is nonsense is that the pay at Google is below what their competitors pay…both Irish and foreign….
I would also be interested in seeing your source for Google paying less than their competitors (while we are are asking for sources).
Nationalise them dav maybe?
Big blow for so many workers, awful news
no, just be prepared for when the tech companies reduce their presence here as we are forced to get our Tax collecting in order, allied with Trump offering them tax evasion services back in the US..
Well that’s not going to be a surprise is it Dav?
Less than 12 multinationals pay 40% of corporation tax in Ireland. All kenny & mick need to do now is get another in to fill the gap, doesn’t matter if consists of 500 robots & 1 actual employed human so long as it contributes to propping up the illusion of recovery.
It’s still preferable to 2500 man years of unemployment isn’t it? How many tech companies were hiring 500 people in 2009?
.. kenny & co could not give a fly’n if 500 people sit at home employed, so long as another multinational [even if it only employs 5 people] steps in & pays a tax return that equates to that of the outgoing company.
Ah now come on. Can we not even have a serious discussion about something like this without turning it into a muck spreading whinge festival?
Well, unfortunately I can only have a serious discussion with those as cynical as myself. Come back to me in a few years.
I was once as cynical as you Jimmy. It’s not good for you.
Dav is right. We need to get rid of these multinationals providing high paying high tech jobs for our young people and replace them with community outreach programmes funded by the taxpayer. Then the whole country can be like West Belfast.
100%
Ha!
The 2009 jobs would be in what is now HPE. HP split in to two parts a few years ago.
Actually pretty surprising they kept cartridge manufacturing here for as long as they did.
This.
Not very good from the sheet to deliberately confuse the 500 number
500 jobs created in 2009 are still there
500 being let go today are jobs that have effectively been there for many years
Confuse? This site is mostly fake news and recycled memes. There is little actual journalism
as I understand it this has been on the cards for a couple of years at least
truth is old guard “oem’s” like hp have been coring out perm staff fairly silently for a good while now, they keep existing business alive via threadbare contractor labour, “global engineering” teams (I think everyone knows what that means) and lots and lots of illusory ppt slides
this particular hatchet is relating to the manufacturing side in Leixlip, inkjet printer cartridge production which has been a race to the bottom for years now (when u buy that fairly impressive inkjet printer/scanner for the price of a few pints in Harvey Norman or wherever you can see that)
BUT they’re all at it including a very well known behemoth in Cork
this particular scenario got public attention but trust me theres industry-wide erosion
very sorry to hear about this and I wish everyone luck in getting sorted out but don’t be expecting anything beyond soundbites from FG/FF (this will be Mary Mitchell OConnor hic on duty don’t forget)
The Irish Govt is going to have to start asking US Multinationals to pay 12.5% Tax, currently none of them do. They pay 0.001% Tax. There has to be a balance of providing jobs AND getting the companies to pay what is a very low Tax of 12.5%.
that may well be the case but I honestly don’t believe that this would have made a whit of a difference in this scenario or any of the others that have been happening in the past 5-ish years, its driven by other factors
sad truth is regards to the thinking of some HR hatchet team in sunny California Ireland is about as relevant as Greater Manchester (actually I’ve seen us often mistaken for being part of the UK structure by some) for plant operations like HP Leixlip
if it’s “uneconomic” (and that means failing to make VERY positive contributions towards company profit and resultant share price not just breaking even) it gets looked at for deletion/move/consolidation
that printer business was up for closure a long time ago. I’m listening to the radio and apparently all the politicians are shocked etc. I personally don’t believe that, they would have suspected at least a year ago this was on the cards. insult to injury for the unfortunate ex-employees and various supply businesses involved, local shops etc.
Thank you MBA school
MBA my arse
but you’re welcome
I was really agreeing with you. But I’ve changed my mind now.
Drinking buddies.
I think that all this talk of “HP Inc.” is VERY ironic, considering that the factory made and/or filled INK cartridges !!!
Just sayin’..
F.