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LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr
THE MINISTER FOR Employment has said that Leixlip Intel staff and their families are “extremely concerned” amid global workforce cuts at the company and uncertainty about how its Irish operations might be affected.
The tech company has confirmed that it intends to downsize its worker base but has not yet provided details about whether its Leixlip campus will be hit.
In a statement this morning, Minister Peter Burke said he is engaging with Intel at what is a “difficult time for staff in the midst of continued uncertainty”. He said it is likely to be several weeks before detail is available on the impact of Intel’s planned cost reduction measures.
But how likely or unlikely is it that workers in Ireland will be impacted by Intel’s downsizing?
The minister believes that it is a “positive” that Intel has indicated that it wants to continue to invest in its core business of manufacturing semiconductor products.
Leixlip is the base for Intel’s European manufacturing operations. It’s one of only a few locations that produces Intel’s main technology products.
Intel also recently completed a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Leixlip called Fab34, which was a large investment for the company.
“It is positive that the company have stated that they will continue to focus investment on their core business, the manufacturing of semiconductor products. This is the primary activity in Ireland,” Burke said.
“It is also worth noting that Intel has completed the construction of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility in Europe in Fab 34, which is now in production in Leixlip and can be central to Intel’s growth recovery strategy,” he said.
Intel employs 4,900 people at its Leixlip manufacturing plant. A worker employed at the Leixlip site told The Journal that staff had initially found out about the potential cuts this week through media coverage.
It was reported on Wednesday by Bloomberg that Intel is planning to cut more than 20% of its workforce - although this remains unsubstantiated by the company, which has not provided any figures on the cuts.
What we know for certain is that Intel’s CEO has said that “there is no way around the fact” that the company will reduce the size of its workforce – but much of this seems to relate to what he described as “critical” changes to its organisational structure, as opposed to its engineering operations.
Approached by The Journal outside the Leixlip campus, a number of workers were hesitant to approach the subject, with one engineer saying “I don’t want to put my job at risk”.
One worker told The Journal that the sweeping job cuts were not a surprise.
“We knew it was coming with the new CEO, but we’ve heard nothing yet,” they said.
“I wouldn’t be too worried. I’d suspect that the cuts will mostly affect middle management”.
Another said that media coverage of the cuts ” was giving us more information than the company”.
Staff are expecting to receive an email from Intel Ireland today with news on the company’s quarterly earnings and future plans.
I am currently outside Intel's chip manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare, where a number of staff are awaiting the announcement of job cuts following the company's quarterly report last night @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/PHe99sgPNt
— Andrew Walsh (@AndyBreathnach) April 25, 2025
In an email to all employees of Intel Corporation following the release of disappointing financial results for Q1, CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over the company last month, said that he was announcing important changes in an effort to progress forward.
Tan wrote that as the company refocuses on engineering, it will be removing organisational complexity. He said that “unnecessary bureaucracy” slows the company down and he is looking to remove layers.
“I’m a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people,” Tan wrote. “There is no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce.”
Other changes announced include a prescribed four days spent working on site per week, cutting down on previous flexibility with hybrid working.
Tan announced cuts to the company’s operating costs and capital spending targets. He also stated that time was being wasted on unnecessary meetings with too many attendees. “Time consuming” corporate administrative tasks such as “non-essential training” and documentation will also be cut back.
Tan’s announcement that he plans to thin out “bureaucracy” in the company may mean that manufacturing jobs are less at risk than others, but definitive plans have yet to be announced.
His stated focus on “streamlining” indicates that middle-management is where the company is initially eyeing to reduce its workforce.
The hinted job cuts follow a previous 15% workforce reduction in August 2024, part of a $10 billion cost-saving initiative by Intel.
Additional reporting by Andrew Walsh
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