Possibly that MP's were in crisis talks to Seagate when the Limavady plant went to the wall.
The DJ reports that Mark Durcan has met with Invest NI chiefs over the future of the Stream Call Centres in Derry. He's also talking with Ilex regarding the possible opportunities of Project Kelvin's Telehouse in Derry (which is controlled from Dublin). Mr Durcan, I can save you some time there. There is non only for the cabling company that wires the datacentre up.....
Once we have landed back to reality a bit, let's consider some things here. Stream is suffering from supply and demand. There's no demand and way too much supply (which costs to keep in terms of staff salaries and somewhere to put them), contracts have been lost and it's the employees who lose out. Stream can't source new work for the simple face that Invest NI have over invested in call centres in other parts of the province. The focus shifts from Derry to Newry and Belfast.
Why put all the focus on Stream? Why not put it in startup creation, if Derry is so bothered about spawning jobs from Project Kelvin then you'd expect Noribic to be stepping up to the stage and asking to be counted in. Not so from where I'm sitting.
Taking Belfast as an example, there are a lot of low level grass roots things going on, these then spawn into larger things and link up with the funding things. So the likes of Open Coffee morphs into Barcamp/Bizcamp which can get the likes of Digital Circle involved who link and fight hard to get the attention of the funding bodies. Not easy but it looks like it's working.
Sitting in Refresh Belfast last night had that feeling of an underground movement just coming to the surface, it felt fresh and exciting again. Me, for one, though older than most in the room felt the creation of something good that could make a difference. How to spread that to the North West is the next challenge but having the likes of government focusing on one little thing that's failed and trying desperately to revive it, well perhaps it's time to move on and develop something new and sustainable.
No offence to anyone who works for Stream, it's a tough call for any employer to layoff staff but it happens all the time. And the fact of the matter is that every company is desperate to cut costs regardless of whether they have money or not. The rise of the one man band is around the corner again, it's just another cycle that will bottom out and rise again.
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You are essentially saying let people lose their jobs (jobs that already exist) because there is a chance that there might be more in the future. The focus on Stream makes sense because a short-term grant would give the company the capital reserves to keep its staff on until it can get another contract.
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