Meta employs around 1,800 people in Ireland, some of whom will lose their jobs as part of Meta laying off 10pc of its total workforce.

Technology giant Meta will reportedly lay off as many as 350 – or nearly 20pc – of its Ireland-based employees as part of its plans to cut 8,000 people from its global workforce, representing around 10pc of staff worldwide.  

Early this morning (20 May), staff in Ireland, where around 1,800 Meta employees are based, received an email informing them that some people will be impacted by the global redundancies. Meta has since submitted a collective redundancy notification to the Department of Enterprise.

In late April, it was reported that Meta had told its staff that 10pc of the workforce would be let go, apparently as a means of mitigating the costs of heavy AI spending and investment, with the first cuts expected in late May. 

At the time, Meta’s chief people officer Janelle Gale said: “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.”

Earlier this week, Meta also announced that the organisation would be reassigning 7,000 employees to facilitate more AI-aligned roles. A memo issued by Gale said that the new corporate structure will be “flatter”, with “smaller teams”.

This isn’t the first time this year that Meta’s Ireland-based teams have been impacted by cuts – around 15 people lost their jobs in March. 

In response to the recently announced layoffs, Labour’s enterprise spokesperson George Lawlor, TD called on the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD and the Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation Niamh Smyth, TD to create a strategy that would protect jobs in the technology sector, amid a spate of high-profile redundancies. 

“This is a deeply worrying and stressful time for anyone employed by Meta and I firstly want to express my solidarity with those people working there, their families and their communities … Minister Burke must work with Meta to ensure fairness is applied and to protect jobs and livelihoods where possible,” said Lawlor. 

“We need to see a comprehensive plan in place for the State to help secure jobs and protect workers’ incomes in the event their employer and sector faces a downturn or a change in business model.”

He added: “It is not just workers who are directly employed by these companies which are affected either. The cumulative effect of these cuts are devastating for families and for people who are indirectly employed by the tech industry too.

“Combined with spiralling food, fuel, energy and housing prices, and the shameful rental changes that are increasing rents and driving evictions, this is a very worrying time for working people in the sector and indeed across the country.”

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