George Lawlor urges IDA to secure jobs after BNY Mellon exit
George Lawlor pressed the minister to ask the IDA to acquire the former Bank of New York Mellon offices in Wexford and to secure replacement employment for the 310 workers who lost their jobs. He said the building in the IDA business park represents an ideal opportunity for a new IDA company to move in.
Background on the Wexford job losses
The Bank of New York Mellon disposed of 310 highly skilled jobs last year, and its offices are now on the market in an IDA business park in Wexford town. Lawlor highlighted the local impact of that consolidation and the availability of a ready-made office suite.
Request to the minister and the IDA
Lawlor urged the minister to impress upon the IDA to purchase the building and to secure employment, including potential replacement employment for the 310 former BNY Mellon workers. He framed the building as an opportunity to provide an opening for an IDA company to move into the site.
Minister's assurance on IDA action
The minister replied that the IDA are liaising with BNY in relation to the building and a future occupant for it. The minister said that when premises become vacant due to changes in operations, securing a replacement tenant is a priority and that officials will do everything they can to achieve that.
Regional jobs and IDA disbursement targets
The minister also said he is driving the IDA on disbursement of jobs to regional areas, noting they have hit 56-57 percent and expressing hope that the level will continue through the remaining four years of the current strategy. The remarks link the Wexford opportunity to wider regional employment goals.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Minister, in December the IDA published their 2025 year results saying that they had secured a record 323 investment proposals in 2025 representing a 38% increase on the previous year and expected to deliver over 15,000 new jobs. As you know in Wexford last year Bank of New York Mellon disposed of 310 highly skilled jobs when the workers lost their jobs. Their offices are now on the market in an IDA business park in Wexford town. This is an ideal opportunity for the IDA to acquire a really really good suite of offices and a building that could provide an opening for an IDA company to move into. Can I urge you to impress upon the IDA to purchase this building and to secure employment and perhaps some replacement employment for the 310 workers of BNY Mellon who lost their jobs in Wexford? Minister. Thank you Alaska and Corolla and I thank Deputy Lawler for raising this very important matter and I can absolutely assure you in the first instance that the IDA are liaising with BNY in relation to the building and a future occupant for it. That would be very much the forefront of any building that comes forward becomes vacant because of a change in operations like BNY had in terms of their consolidation and absolutely you can be assured that we will do everything we can to get a replacement tenant in it and quite rightly one of the things I'm really driving the IDA on is disbursement of jobs that we need to see a strong proportion going to regional areas and obviously they've hit 56-57 percent we're hoping that will continue throughout the remaining four years of the current strategy. Deputy Harris.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
