The services firm has been deeply impacted by operations cuts in some of the country’s biggest tech multinationals
Accenture employs over 6,500 people in Ireland, bringing its employment reduction in the downturn to almost 20pc.
It was heavily impacted by operations cuts at tech multinationals such as Meta, which has let over a third of its workforce go in the last year.
Staff were informed today, a company spokesperson told Independent.ie.
“In March, we initiated a series of actions to streamline our operations, including the departure of around 2.5pc of our current global workforce,” said the spokesperson.
“We will be commencing a collective employee consultation for a proposed redundancy programme that is expected to affect around 890 people at Accenture in Ireland. We do not plan to comment further while the consultation process is ongoing.”
Thousands of Accenture’s employees act as outsourced workers for tech giants, including Meta and Microsoft, many of which have had to reduce their workforces because of the economic downturn.
It also provides services to banks, government agencies and big industrial and pharma businesses around the world.
“Our business in Ireland continues to show strong performance and we remain focused on our strategy to be at the centre of our clients’ business and help them reinvent themselves to reach new levels of performance.,” the spokesperson said.
“We continue to focus on ensuring we have the right talent to serve our clients, to invest in our people and recruit in critical skills areas. We remain firmly committed to our business in Ireland and will continue managing for the long-term.”
Accenture’s business in Ireland is headed by country manager, Hilary O’Meara.
Labour Senator and party spokesperson on employment affairs Marie Sherlock said this is a “shocking” loss of jobs.
“My thoughts are very much with the workers in the first instance and ensuring they obviously get a fair package but also, I think it’s the devastation left in the wake of such an enormous closure for a supplier to the company,” she told Independent.ie.
“Any job loss of that scale is obviously extremely frightening in terms of the impact that has for the suppliers into Accenture and the local businesses.
“This is the latest in a series of very significant layoffs that we’ve seen over the last number of months.
“I do think there is an element here of, notwithstanding whatever pat on the back we give ourselves in regard to how well the economy is doing, but there is an uncertainty with regards to how companies in certain sectors are performing.
“I think we probably need to understand more about the extent of which companies over recruited in recent years before we have a fuller understanding of what’s going on. We know that happened for instance in the tech sector.”
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly said the news was a “crushing blow” for staff and their families.
“This is yet another concerning blow for tech workers in Ireland, and a worrying sign of continuing volatility in the sector,” she said.
Ms O’Reilly said the Department of Enterprise, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland should share skills profiles of any laid off staff with other state agencies and state supported firms, who may be hiring or looking for similar skills.
She called for Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney to investigate how many of these jobs will be “reemployed”.
“We need to know the full picture,” she said.
“The volatility in the tech sector over the past 18 months further reinforces the need for all workers to join, and be active, in their trade union.”
Labour’s finance spokesperson Ged Nash said the news was a “huge blow”.
He said Accenture now have a month to carry out a formal consultation and it must be “meaningful and not tokenistic”.
“What the company ought to do is to work with their staff and staff representatives to identify possible other cost cutting measures that could be considered outside of the nuclear button of 890 redundancies,” he said.
“It should not be a fait accompli. This is a consultation process.
“This is a huge blow.”
