Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to meet the chief executives of major employers such as Intel and Microsoft to discuss their Irish operations following Pfizer's decision to scale back its operations with the threatened loss of 500 jobs in Cork.
"The Taoiseach should meet with all the chief executives of the big multinationals and discuss with them the implications of where we are headed here," Mr Kenny said.
"We want to ensure that we have a very strong job base in this country and clearly they [ the multinationals] are signalling that cost bases are becoming too high. Construction inflation and other inflation tendencies are making it difficult for job futures here," he added. "Our cost base is very high. We have been pointing out that we have lost competitiveness. We have the highest inflation rate in Europe," Mr Kenny said.
The party's Munster MEP and TD for Cork South Central, Simon Coveney, called on the Government to open an all-party debate on the rising cost of doing business in Ireland following the news that almost 500 jobs at Pfizer's Cork plants are at risk. "In recent weeks Cork city and county have been hit by a series of announcements of job losses.
"Last week it was Motorola. Today we have the announcement from Pfizer of the loss of 65 jobs in their Ringaskiddy plant by the end of the year, as well as the possibility of 320 job losses at Loughbeg and 160 job losses at Little Island if those two plants cannot be sold on as a going concern," said Mr Coveney.
He said this scale of job losses in Cork was something that had not been seen for years. What was of most concern was that these were jobs in a high-skilled area and were the kind of jobs that Ireland should be attracting, not losing.
"Of course the first priority must be to secure purchasers for the Loughbeg and Little Island plants to ensure that any job losses are minimised. This must be the Government's and the IDA's top priority in Cork. Secondly, we must ask the hard questions of Government about whether Ireland is no longer being seen as a competitive destination for doing business for large multinationals," he said.
Mr Coveney said the dramatic growth in the Irish economy had been sustained by attracting foreign investment and keeping it here over the last 15 years. "I hope this announcement is not a turning point in how Ireland will be viewed as a destination for investment. Motorola and Pfizer have been two of Cork's top employers.
"The Government needs to open discussions with Fine Gael and other Opposition parties to consider whether we need new measures to sustain competitiveness in Ireland," he said.