Ireland inc is on edge this week as some of the big tech companies that have bolstered the economy to an astonishing degree over the last decade are convulsed by uncertainty.
Twitter announced last week that it was letting around half of its 500 employees here go – with some of them said to have found out they were surplus to requirements when their access to essential workplace tools such as email were cut off in the middle of the working day.
Days later, it emerged that at least some of those staff might have been sacked in error so things remain very much up in the air there.
There is uncertainty of a different kind in Meta. The umbrella company which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and more is undergoing a global restricting with 1000 jobs in Ireland said to be under threat.
Coalition led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael top choice among voters, indicates poll
The Trump factor in Ireland’s election: Voters see less appeal in ‘radical’ change
Irish soldiers prevented from leaving Lebanon after drunken airport fight
Scientology recruits asylum seekers in Dublin, promising them ‘help with refugee status’
Payments giant Stripe, set up by the Limerick-born Collison brothers, meanwhile has announced that it is looking to lay off almost 15 per cent of its total workforce.
Meanwhile Google and Apple are imposing recruitment freezes.
But what does this all mean for Ireland? And is it just an inevitable correction or a sign of a greater malaise.
Irish Times Economics Correspondent Eoin Burke Kennedy and technology journalist Ciara O’Brien talk to In The News about the rocky road ahead.
