I don't think the goal of ITs was to produce research.

Then why do they give out master's degrees and PhDs?

Leading real estate agency to lay off 13 workers
BARRY O'HALLORAN - Indo

THE PROPERTY slowdown forced another leading real estate agency to cut jobs yesterday.

Multinational property company CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) confirmed to The Irish Times that it laid off 13 of its 140 staff yesterday.

Managing director Guy Hollis said the cuts were across the board, and blamed the slowing property market.

"It's the slowdown in the transactions side of our business. It's very unfortunate, they are all good people, but it's something that we needed to do," Mr Hollis said.

The workers were all full-time employees of CBRE's Irish operation. Mr Hollis made it clear that the company expects the slowdown to persist.

"We would not have done it if we thought that this was just going to last for three months," he said. "It could go on for six to 12 months. This is a result of global conditions and what's happened in banking.

"It's not just Ireland that's suffering, this is happening right across Europe and the US, and even in Asia."

However, he added that a build-up in negative sentiment would not help the market once the recovery kicks in.

"People are tending to jump on the negative things, but there are positive things happening out there too," he said.

CBRE is a global commercial real estate firm with 350 offices spread around 58 countries.

Its Irish office is the latest to take steps to combat the recession in the property market.

Last week, Gunne New Homes told staff that a number of people will have to be let go to stop the business from losing money. That followed news that Lisney is cutting pay across the board by 10 per cent. The company said the reduction will operate from the top down.

UK-based international agent DTZ, which has a stake in Irish firm DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald, let 50 people go from its 2,000-strong workforce in Britain last week.

There are persistent rumours that other leading property dealers have also cut either jobs or pay, but they have denied this, however.

A report on job cuts at Gunne New Homes last week wrongly stated that the agency is part of CBRE. This is not the case.

Oh look. The regional technical college gravy train is coming to an end.

Those lecturers would have been better off if they'd studied "administration".

Shut 'em down: most are hopeless with abysmal research records. Funding should be proportional to the quality of the research output.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs confirmed that it is hiring 31 extra staff to cope with the increased workload brought about by the rise in the live register numbers, to around 207,000.
....
Ms Hanafin, responding to a Dail question from Labour TD Emmet Stagg, said her department was increasing its staffing to cope with the significant extra demand on social welfare offices.

"Following on from the most recent reviews undertaken by the Management Services Unit of the department as a consequence of the increasing Live Register, an additional 31 posts have been allocated to some 15 offices and the necessary assignments are currently being made," she said.

Meanwhile, the number of Eastern Europeans on the dole is rising faster than any other group.

There are around 13,000 on the live register, compared to around 2,000 just two years ago, meaning that they now account for 7.1pc of all workers on the dole.

By Eoin English
ALMOST 500 Pfizer jobs are on the line after advanced plans to sell one of its Cork plants collapsed.


The global pharmaceutical giant confirmed last night that a potential buyer for its Little Island Ops 4 to 6 facility — one of two of Pfizer’s Cork plants which are on the international market — has pulled out of the process.

It was hoped that the sale of the plants as going concerns would save the jobs.


There are 180 people employed at Little Island and 300 people employed at the Loughbeg plant.

But the collapse of the Little Island deal has put the future of all 480 jobs in doubt. If the plants are not sold by the end of 2009, they will close with the loss of all jobs.

Pfizer said it had heavily marketed the Little Island plant in difficult market conditions in recent months.

Several interested companies visited the site. One multinational contract manufacturing company entered a “due diligence process”, which included a site visit and an examination of the books.

However, Pfizer bosses told staff yesterday the company has told them the facility does not meet their requirements.

“This is very disappointing as we were hopeful we could reach a positive conclusion,” a Pfizer spokesperson said.

The sale of the plants, which make active ingredients for Pfizer drugs, was announced in February 2007.

It followed the scrapping of a potentially revolutionary cholesterol drug, Torcetrapib, after clinical trials showed that it increased the risk of death.

Pfizer had ploughed some €509.7 million into its development and the outcome of the trials was to have a devastating impact on the Cork plants, which would have produced almost 40% of its active ingredients.

Despite the difficulties, Pfizer will continue to recruit up to 100 staff for its €190m biologics facility at Shanbally in Ringaskiddy.

Some of the staff at the Little Island and Loughbeg plants may be able to redeploy to the facility.

Pfizer employs about 2,300 people in Ireland.

04 July 2008

Aga rationalisation to cut workforce
By Niamh Hennessy

AGA Foodservice Group is to rationalise operations in Ireland, which will result in job losses and the implementation of short-time working.

The company said that despite exceptional growth in recent years in Ireland driven primarily by Rangemaster, Aga and Waterford Stanley, deteriorating economic conditions in recent months have led to a fall in consumer demand.

The company refused to give any further details on job losses, but said the number would be small.

It said it is working on marketing initiatives to bolster sales in Ireland.

In May the company said it expected sales to be down in Ireland in the first half of the year, where it said the market was very weak.

Yesterday it said its decision to "rationalise" operations in Ireland will have a "significant impact" on first-half results.

Aga has stores in Dun Laoghaire, Cork and Galway.

In a group trading statement Aga Rangemaster said it is making good progress within its overall operations.

It said underlying trading results for the first half are expected to be broadly in line with those for 2007.

Chief executive William McGrath said: "Overall our wide range of consumer brands are proving resilient. Our marketing programmes, in support of our strong brands, are backed by product development initiatives which reinforce the relevance of our well differentiated products to consumers.

"With efficient manufacturing and well established distribution structures, the potential for the group remains strong, although we are mindful of the economic climate we are facing."

500 Pfizer jobs in peril as plant

Examiner

83 workers to be laid off at Clare plant
Friday, 4 July 2008 14:28
It is understood that 83 workers are to be laid off over the next three months at Sykes Enterprises in Co Clare.

The Shannon-based technical support company has refused to comment on reports that it is to make people redundant.

It is understood workers were told the news yesterday.


AdvertisementSykes provides technical support services for a number of companies, mainly in the IT and communications sectors.