Google celebrates 15 years in Ireland with new Dublin fund



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The head of Google in Ireland said the company needed to do a better job of fighting badual harbadment and the mistreatment of employees.

However, Fionnuala Meehan said that no employee of the company's office in Dublin had been fired for such problems.

She added that the problem was taken very seriously and that, as the site manager, she would be aware of any dismissals at the European headquarters, if any.

"We work here in a wonderful, culturally diverse place, but I think what unites us is respect," Ms. Meehan said.

"And we talk about those values ​​and that respect from the moment someone is hired."

Last week, thousands of Google employees around the world, including in Dublin, left the job for an hour to protest the company's treatment of women.

This action followed a series of revelations about the badual harbadment of women in Google's workplaces around the world and the news that at least 48 people had been fired in recent years for such acts.

"We are very demanding as a company and I think it's clear, both disappointed and disappointed, that we have all felt the need to do more and listen more," he said. said Ms. Meehan.

"And part of that was supporting the walkouts last week and listening to the kind of ideas from these groups," she added.

Meehan said the company is looking for ways to find answers to the problem globally and how to integrate these solutions into the business around the world.

She was talking while the internet giant was marking its 15th anniversary of opening an office in Ireland.

She also revealed that the number of people Google is using here, directly and indirectly, has grown to more than 8,000, with more than 1,000 new employees added in the past year.

The new roles have been adopted across the industry, with the Dublin-based Google Cloud team growing in scale.

The company currently has about 240 vacant positions waiting to be filled.

"70% of what we do here is sales, and so a lot of that is working with companies big and small," Ms. Meehan said.

"So this is an important part of our growth story as a company, we have added to that our cloud business and we have doubled the size of this team this year," she added.

Currently, there are 70 nationalities among Google's workforce in the capital and 75 different languages ​​because the company serves 100 markets across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa , from Dublin.

On the occasion of its anniversary, Google has launched a new Dublin Impact Challenge in the amount of 1 million euros.

The initiative, organized by the company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, will see nonprofit innovators and social entrepreneurs arguing for funding for ideas that should have a local impact in the Dublin County region. .

Fifteen proposals will be chosen and each of them will receive € 50,000 in grants to transform their plan into reality. Four of the 15 will also receive an additional 50,000 euros.

This is the first time that Google.org runs an Impact Challenge outside of the United States.

"I think it's really important to contact the community and ask if we can help, what ideas do you have," Ms. Meehan said.

Housing is one of the city's most important social issues, but Google's boss in Dublin says it does not prevent growth from growing.

She also does not think that Google is contributing to the problem by driving up real estate prices.

"People who come to live and work in Dublin understand that they are coming to a capital where market forces are at stake," she said.

"And if they want to live in the city center, there's probably a premium to that and I think that's why we're asking the local community to give us ideas about what Google could improve and how we could use the skills and resources available. " we have, how could we use technology, "she said.

She confirmed that Google will rent apartments in Boland's Quay complex for which she took a lease, although she does not plan to make them available for affordable housing for locals.

Boland's Quay in Dublin

While more and more small technology companies are finding it increasingly difficult to attract the right talent to grow their business, Google does not have that problem, says Meehan.

"I guess you have to remember that we are looking for jobs in the sales and engineering fields in Ireland, but also more widely in Europe, the Middle East and Africa," she said. declared.

"So we recruit a lot on campuses in Irish universities, but also in universities in the region."

"I guess in Ireland we're very optimistic about the number of talent in software engineering and we think it could be part of the next 15 years for Google, companies like Stripe opening up their international engineering headquarters." that's auspicious, "Ms. Meehan said.

Another potential threat to Google's activities would be the introduction of a tax on digital businesses, similar to that announced by the British government last week.

But Ms. Meehan said the company left it to the tax administration to set the tax rules and that it would continue to pay all the taxes imposed by law.

Google asked her if she was paying enough taxes. She added that the issue should also be considered in the context of the global investment of one billion euros made by the company in this country.

She said the Internet giant was in favor of international tax reform to simplify and simplify it.

On Brexit, Meehan said the problem did not slow down the company in terms of investment decisions, but it created uncertainty for its customers, especially small businesses.

She said Google recently talked to companies about how they do business online and across borders because, she added, every business needs to think about it.

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