The recent announcement, by the management of the computer multi-national Dell Corporation, to terminate the jobs of 1,900 workers at its Raheen Industrial estate plant in Limerick will seriously effect businesses in Tipperary County. This is because many of the employee’s commute daily from many Tipperary towns including Roscrea, Nenagh, Thurles, and Templemore.
Dell grew during the 1980s and 1990s to become the largest seller of PCs and servers. However from 2008 it held the second spot in computer-sales within the computer industry falling behind the Hewlett-Packard Company.
European officials are now to investigate a reported €52.7million aid package used by the Polish Government to charm this computer giant away from Limerick. This almost €53 million sweetener was agreed with senior Dell executives, at the same time as the company seeks to get rid of 1,900 jobs and seriously affect an estimated other 10,000 jobs in sub-supply companies reliant on Dells business. The new plant, with a cheaper workforce, will be in Łódź (means Boat) which is approximately 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-west of Warsaw.
The European Commission now state that an in-depth investigation into how this deal was struck, will be completed within the next six months. Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, has stated that there are doubts whether this lucrative deal will pass strict rules on State aid.
“We need to investigate all the effects of this aid to verify that it contributes to regional development and to ensure that it will not reinforce Dell’s position or create significant capacity in a market on the decline in the European Economic Area (EEA),” Mrs Kroes stated.
European Union Competition Policy is basically applying rules to make sure that companies compete with each other in order to sell their products, through innovation and good pricing to consumers. The risk if there’s no competition policy is that companies will do deals with each other to split up the market between them, or will act in a way which does not allow competitors into the marketplace. In either case the result can be that consumers are denied access to innovative products and /or pay extremely high prices.
Concerned EU parties, including the Irish Government, will be able to offer their views when full details of this reported sweetner package is investigated and let us now hope that this new factory is not solely dependant on gas.
Now please someone explain the following?
On the 19th December 2006, we are told, that, at an event hosted by the President of Lodz, Jerzy Kropiwnicki, together with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in the Poznanski Palace in Lodz, Poland, the Dell Corporate Vice President Sean Corkery and Polish Minister of the Economy Piotr Wozniak, signed an agreement to inaugurate the establishment of a new factory to produce computers in Lodz, Poland. According to Dell Vice President Corkery, excavation at the site have already begun and they expect to start hiring labour in December 2006 and producing their first product in October 2007. This new factory, we are told, is potentially a €200 million investment with job creation for up to 3,000 employees. The new factory will sell to the Polish market and export to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, thus becoming a regional production and distribution center.
On Thursday, 25 January 2007, Dell again announce that it is building its most state-of-the-art factory in Łódź, Poland in the centre of the country. Its opening is planned again for autumn 2007. From this factory this technical giant aims to increase its production capabilities and meet the growing demand in central and eastern Europe. The new factory will manufacture new generation servers and laptops.
Explain how those we place in charge of our countries affairs were so oblivious to the obvious?
Perhaps it is now time to make the novel by George Orwell, entitled Animal Farm, compulsory reading, as part of our countries educational system.
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