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AFTER MUCH SPECULATION, HP Inc confirmed today that it will close its print business in Kildare, 20 years after it first opened its doors.
The company said that it was likely that close to 500 jobs will be lost at the Leixlip facility over the coming 12 months.
The move is part of a restructuring programme the multinational announced last year in a bid to save up to $300 million every year by 2020.
In recent years, the computer giant has fallen victim to the march of technology, with consumers shifting away from traditional desktop PCs in favour of laptops and tablets.
The Leixlip facility, which makes ink cartridges for printers, has effectively become obsolete with the rise of cloud computing and digital documents.
While today’s announcement is a big blow for north Kildare, HP said it will will maintain the sales operators for its printing and personal systems business in Ireland.
With that in mind, let’s look back at the rise and fall of the print plant in Leixlip.
Arrival in Leixlip
In March 1995, Hewlett-Packard announced that it would open a factory in Leixlip to assemble ink cartridges for printers, bringing 1,000 jobs to north Kildare.
The computer giant, which first came to Ireland in the 1970s, pumped IR£328 million into a 200-acre site that was formerly home of a meat factory and abattoir. The production line was up and running by November 1996.
With an Intel microchip factory just two miles up the road, the Leixlip area suddenly became a major European hub for IT behemoths.
Future prospects for the new factory looked good in the late 1990s – HP inkjet printers were all the rage and enjoyed a 60% share of the world’s booming print market.
The Irish Independent reported at the time that PC users were just beginning to use their printers to “print off information from the internet and for colour illustration”.
By mid-1997, Hewlett-Packard was hiring between 50 and 60 new staff every month.
Speaking in June of that year, the group’s president at the time, Lew Platt, said it was “the most rapid startup from a greenfield site” HP had ever achieved.
The computer giant was tipped to double its workforce at Leixlip in its first five years of operations.
‘A coup for Ireland’
The group decided to base its European data centre at the Leixlip campus in the late 1990s. This move saw Hewlett-Packard’s Kildare workforce swell to 2,100 employees.
IDA Ireland, the state agency responsible for attracting foreign investment, played a part in securing the investment for Kildare.
Ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern called it “a coup for Ireland’s growing international IT reputation”, according to a report in the Irish Examiner.
“This further investment by Hewlett-Packard in Ireland will help to ensure the company’s long-term success here and deepen its roots in the Irish economy,” Ahern said at the time.
The former taoiseach said it was a “major and important breakthrough in IDA Ireland’s strategy to position Ireland at the centre of Europe in e-business activity”.
Largest employer
By the turn of the millennium, Hewlett-Packard had established itself as the largest IT employer in the country with more than 4,000 staff on its book across operations in Kildare, Galway, Dublin and Belfast.
The Leixlip campus continued to grow throughout the ‘noughties’, with the firm pumping €21 million into an inkjet technology development centre in 2004. Hundreds more jobs were added to the Kildare operations in 2006 when HP expanded its financial services unit there for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
However, two years later, when the global economy went over the edge, the company announced it would cut up to 25,000 jobs from its global workforce following a $14 billion acquisition of computer services firm EDS.
Fears of massive job losses in Ireland were unfounded – the company shed just over 130 roles nationwide, with the bulk of global job losses being recorded in the US.
However, that was only the beginning of a restructuring programme that would effectively continue until today.
The company’s global profits peaked in 2010 at $8.8 billion and declined over the next five years as it struggled to compete in a changing technology landscape.
In 2012, Hewlett-Packard announced another bout of job losses, with 27,000 roles on the chopping block as part of a $3.5 billion savings plan. That resulted in 280 jobs being lost at its Dublin office in July 2013.
In 2014, a further 16,000 job cuts were announced in an effort to relieve further pressure on its profit margins.
Split
In 2015, Hewlett-Packard was split into two separate companies – HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
HP Inc focuses on traditional consumer products like PCs and printers, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise specialises in business services like cloud computing and big data analytics.
HP Inc tried to innovate by mooching into the 3D printing sphere and by bringing out a line of laptops. This helped it achieve a net profit of $2.7 billion last year. However, the firm still decided to plough ahead with yet another restructuring programme.
In October last year, the company announced that it would cut 4,000 jobs from its 50,000-strong global workforce between 2017 and 2019, once again sparking fears of job losses in Ireland.
Those fears came true this morning when it was confirmed that the Leixlip print facility was one of the casualities.
The firm said in a statement that it was “likely that close to 500 HP employees will be impacted and leave the business over the next 12 months”.
HP said that Ireland “remains an excellent environment for technology companies” and would remain a “key market” for the company. It also said it will maintain the sales operators for its printing and personal systems business in Ireland.
However, today’s announcement is a big blow to north Kildare and brings an end to a long chapter in Leixlip’s history of foreign investment.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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If prostitution was legal they wouldn’t need to be trafficked here
@P: that’s not necessarily true. While it would help, it still happens in places where prostitution is legal.
@P: exactly! Another futile campaign. If a woman wants to choose to sell herself it should be her right to do so. Burying our heads in the sand doesn’t solve anything. Some men will always pay for sex!
@P: Yeah and if murder wasn’t illegal, people wouldn’t be committing that crime with! What’s your point?
@JIMBO BUCKLEY: the point is that some women do not choose this industry. Many of the Netherland’s prostitutes are trafficked.
@P: It is legal here, there are no laws against it. However it is illegal to run a brothel and or traffic humans
@JIMBO BUCKLEY: ya you idiot
@Stephen Devlin: it’s not legal to solitate sex here , I don’t know what laws your reading , just cause escort Ireland is operating doesn’t make it legal
@P: Can you cite the law where it states its illegal please
@P: And how do you solitate sex is that a new thing?
@Stephen Devlin: right there where it says it’s illegal to pay for sex , If you don’t know what I mean what’s the point lock jaw
@P: I’ll ask you again to cite the law
@Government Sachs: most will !
@Stephen Devlin: How about http://www.thejournal.ie/sex-laws-ireland-in-force-3309170-Mar2017/
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: Did your father pay for sex? Or was it your brothers, or your sons or sons in law? I’d love to know why you said most men will pay for sex?
@P: it already is, they just call it sugar dating so they sound more respectable.
@Linda Leavy: Buying sex has been criminalised in the US for over a century, yet they have a huge trafficking problem. Yet in New Zealand, where buying and selling have both been decriminalised, trafficking barely exists.
Criminalisation does not stop trafficking but it does hand the trade over to criminals.
In fairness it is not going to stop prostitution. Why can’t we just grow up and accept that it needs to be legalised, licensing restrictions to where and when it can happen, also mandatory tests and checks to make sure these women want to be sex workers. Regulate and tax it.
@phil: There are no laws preventing prostitution in Ireland
@Stephen Devlin: that’s not true. The purchase of sex was made illegal in Ireland this year On 27 May 2017, when the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 was commenced into force.
@The Grand O’Malley: There is no law against being a prostitute.
@Richard Wright: I agree with you Richard on the preventing part but prostitution is not illegal was the point I was making and I understand a new law is in now about soliciting.
If Ruhama has the evidence or suspicion then why don’t they go to the Gardaí with it for them to investigate???
@Alois Irlmaier: As I understand it the gardai have asked them this same question… on several occasions, they were unable to present evidence of a victim.
@Boyne Sharky: It makes you wonder then, if true?
Nothing like a bit of propaganda to scare people. God forbid people would listen to an actual prostitute. I suppose if it doesn’t fit the agenda
@Sleepy Gary: Do you just pay to hear them chat?
@Sleepy Gary: just thinking that. I think its more of a religious thing. Yeah there is human trafficking but majority of it is fine
”Denise Charlton, said today is important because, for the first time, those involved in prostitution will no longer be criminalised by the law but instead protected by it.”
Sorry but this is a complete lie. Two or more sex workers working together in the same building can be (and often are) still criminalised. This has not changed since the new law was brought in.
In fact, nothing has changed at all legally for indoor workers (who represent almost 90% of sex workers in Ireland). If anyone from TORL, Ruhama or elsewhere can refute this, they would be very welcome.
Ruhama also appear to be ignoring that fact that virtually all brothel raids in Ireland result in seizure of money, criminal charges and deportation. Where are all these women supposedly in need of ‘rescue’?
The oldest profession in the world is actually legal here in Ireland, However it is illegal to run a brothel and or traffic humans
@Stephen Devlin: It is illegal now…
@Alois Irlmaier: It’s illegal to solicit now yes I do see, but no law against being a prostitute.
@Alois Irlmaier: It’s not illegal to be a prostitute
@Stephen Devlin: You’re right that it’s not illegal to be a sex worker, but in Ireland it is illegal to pay somebody for sexual services which basically means the industry is criminalised and unsafe.
@Seani Love: Many on a Saturday night accept free drink rather than money lol.
I sell my body per hour, so is that illegal?? Also I was sent all around Europe buy my company,would I say its trafficking??
@Michael Collins:
But your free to leave your job -u chose to do it .
I’m sure if you were forced to be a male prostitute in a foreign land -you’d be appalled by your own comments
@Colman gan: yes the trafficking aspect is more extreme where the countries have it illegal
I can’t be sexting in traffic, would you go way. Me horn keeps hitting me horn
These groups are moralising men hating feminists.
Oh jesus not them again. Abdul is only out a day and yer back publishing ficticious stories from religious feminists again.
Hung up after 5 seconds cos i was done
Irish Times: 2010
500 children seeking asylum went missing from care in decade
Yeah … I thought we stopped listening to the Nuns and the Catholic Church’s shite talk ages ago?
Wanna know who Ruhama is ?
http://www.universitytimes.ie/2016/04/the-churchs-lingering-shadows-on-sex-work-in-ireland/
@Ibhar Mac Suibhne: …and here is a little bit more from my life
https://mymythbuster.wordpress.com/exploiting-sex-workers-and-desperation/
What about men ,
An Irish daughter living in the USA had not been home for over 5 years. Upon her return, her father cursed at her. Where have ye been all this time? Why did ye not write to us at all? Why didn’t ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old mum thru? The girl, crying, replied, “Sniff… Dad… I became a prostitute.” “Ye what!!? Get out, ye shameless harlot! Sinner! You’re a disgrace!” “OK, Dad – as ye wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat, this deed to a 10 bedroom mansion plus a savings certificate for 5 million dollars.” “For my Brother, this gold Rolex and for you Daddy, the brand new Mercedes convertible that’s parked outside, a membership to the country club and an invitation for ye all to spend New Years Eve on board my new yacht in the Riviera. “Now what was it ye said ye had become?” says Dad. The girl, crying responds; “A prostitute! Dad replies, “Oh Sorry Girl. Give me a hug! Ye scared me to death therel! I thought ye said a Protestant.
No Answer.
@Morizy: there is none. No state, from the most totalitarian to the most liberal has ever managed to either stop it or to resolve all the problems that come with it. It trades on enduring human natures and human desires. The first priority should be to make it less and less attractive for organised crime gangs to be involved, they bring the added misery along.
Isn’t this spoiling the effectiveness of the campaign?
It’s the 2nd oldest profession (and created by the oldest – farming).
Legalise it, regulate it and prosecute the desperados involved – the pimps and the johns raping the illegally trafficked women).
If someone is a prostitute against their will, then their clients need to be categorised as rapists.
@Colin Morris: Much of this comes down to the actual definition of trafficking, which tends to be hugely different depending on who is defining it.
If an Eastern European sex worker decides to come to Ireland because they know they can make a lot more money, is that trafficking? According to Ruhama it is. Yet such a worker is likely to be fined and ordered to leave the country, not ‘rescued.’
Given the number of actual cases, coercive trafficking appears to represent a very small minority here. Two years ago, Gardaí raided 23 premises in one day in a planned operation across the country. While the women selling sex were ‘spoken to’ and ‘given advice’, not one trafficking victim was found. Similar results have occurred in Britain.
This isn’t about trafficking. It’s about disapproval of paid sex, pure and simple.
@David On Tour: Don’t forget that when Eastern European “victims of trafficking” are arrested and charged any cash they have is seized and usually given to Ruhama…
I BET “Andreea” doesn’t get round to talking about THAT.
If it’s legal give them a pension so
@P: You hear of any doing tax returns?
@Stephen Devlin: I heard on radio a prostitute was on saying she was self employed and submitting returns
Here is the end result of this nonsense, presented as if it were a bona fide “blind study”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PmAxaWfXv4&t
They delete any comments that don’t suit them, for example:
***
Ruhama seem to have actually forgotten to mention the huge publicity they gave to this campaign in advance…it is unlikely that any of the caller thought “Andreea” was a real sex worker at all.
I must make a video showcasing Ruhama’s real attitude to sex workers over the years, sooner rather than later.
I am the last person to deny that most sex workers would rather not sell sex, but why do Ruhama twist that into an excuse to make sex work harder and more dangerous for them?
Why do Ruhama refuse to listen to the 97% of sex workers who disagree with every word they say and do not want Ruhama to pretend to represent them?
…and why do Ruhama need to create a fake sex worker to say whatever Ruhama want that fake sex worker to say in the first place?
Staff Salaries 2016
€70,000 – €60,000 1
€60,000 – €50,000 1
€50,000 – €40,000 6
€40,000 – €30,000 2
€20,000 – €30,000 1
Ruhama occupy 2.5 floors of very swish offices with their own independent CCTV system (I hope they inform any sex worker they persuade to approach them that every word they say is recorded). Most of their time is spent having meetings.
I was a woman who hated sex work and desperately wanted a way out of it and past the issues that drove me to it to some kind of normal life.
Based on 29 years hard experience Ruhama horrify me.
****
How much money is this fiasco costing Ruhama? How many women could leave sex work for ever if they were given that money to sort out the financial problems that keep them selling sex?
Why is public money still being wasted on this sick joke of an NGO?
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