In US days after HP job cut plan, MMOC steered clear
JOBS Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor was in Silicon Valley, California, four days after Hewlett-Packard announced 4,000 global job losses – but she did not visit the company’s headquarters, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal. The opposition has slammed Ms Mitchell O’Connor as ‘remiss in her responsibilities’ for her failure to meet with executives from the company, which is located in Silicon Valley. The US IT giant announced on 13 October, 2016, that it would shed 4,000 jobs worldwide. It made headlines in Ireland where the company employs over 2,000 people. Last month it announced the loss of at least 500 jobs here. On October 17, Ms Mitchell O’Connor began a five-day IDA Ireland investment and marketing visit to the US west coast. In answer to written Dáil questions by Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins, she said: ‘My investment mission to the USA in October last did not include a meeting with HP Inc.’ The opposition has pursued Ms Mitchell O’Connor over her ‘laissez-faire attitude’ to the job losses since the MoS revealed she had only one conference call and no meetings with HP executives prior to their announcement that they would cut 500 jobs.
On her return from Southern California Ms Mitchell O’Connor’s press office said: ‘Over the course of the itinerary, the Minister met with in excess of 40 potential and existing client companies in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County where she discussed Ireland’s offering to existing and potential investors.’
There was no mention of HP, which is located in Palo Alto, the main town in Silicon Valley, the IT area outside San Francisco.
Fianna Fáil jobs spokesman Niall Collins has said Ms Mitchell was ‘remiss in her responsibilities when she failed to meet with HP when on a trade mission to California last October’.
‘Five hundred people have lost their jobs. Communities in North Kildare and Meath are now feeling the brunt of the Minister’s inaction and unwillingness to do what is needed to protect Irish jobs,’ he said.
Mr Collins has repeatedly questioned Ms Mitchell O’Connor about her failure to seek meetings and lobby HP to stay in Ireland.
He asked her last week ‘if she had direct bilateral meetings with [HP] senior management’ in Palo Alto. Ms Mitchell O’Connor replied in writing by saying that State agencies did the talking.
However, Mr Collins continued his criticism: ‘We need a Minister who is on top of her brief, who is focused on protecting Irish jobs and winning new investment for communities. Sadly, to date, Minister Mitchell O’Connor has been poor in this regard,’ he concluded.
Ms Mitchell O’Connor has come in for significant criticism over her performance since she was appointed last May.