AN INDIAN company that has put 420 of its Northern Ireland staff on 90-day protective notice is to open a separate operation in Kilkenny, it was announced yesterday.
HCL Technologies said yesterday that there was no connection between the plan to set up in Kilkenny creating 220 jobs and the announcement earlier this week of job losses at its call centres in Belfast and Armagh City.
HCL Technologies said it hoped to maintain 170 of the 420 jobs in the North, which means that 255 employees face redundancy. However, all its jobs at Armagh are to go, it confirmed.
A statement yesterday by the Minister of the Environment Phil Hogan that HCL Technologies is to create 220 jobs in Kilkenny, with 120 of the jobs coming on stream immediately, prompted Armagh SDLP councillor Thomas O’Hanlon to complain that the posts lost to Armagh are being “replaced job-for-job in Kilkenny”.
“This week’s announcement will have devastating consequences for many families in Armagh and while the company have said they are offering re-location options for staff, commuting to Belfast for a salary just above the minimum wage is not a realistic option for the staff in Armagh,” he said.
A spokesman for HCL Technologies insisted there was no link between the jobs being lost in Northern Ireland and created in Kilkenny.
“The proposed investment by HCL Technologies in Kilkenny is not connected to the business operated by HCL-BPO (Northern Ireland) Ltd and there is no question of jobs being created there instead of in Northern Ireland,” he said.
The spokesman added that the job losses in the North were as a result of local business conditions “which were outside the company’s control”.
Mr Hogan said HCL Technologies would run a software delivery centre in Kilkenny.
“The company, which is an IDA Ireland client, will create 120 jobs immediately, increasing to 220 over two years at Danville Business Park,” he said.
“India is one of the leaders in global IT and is also one of the few economies that have been doing well, in spite of the global recession. Partnering with Indian enterprises is very advantageous for the Irish economy,” he added.
Local Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan said the news was a “massive boost” for Kilkenny. He hoped it would “spur other enterprises to look at Kilkenny and the south-east”.
