IRELAND’S POLICY OF welcoming companies with poor human rights records stands at odds with the way that we portray ourselves in the world.
Most Irish readers will be shocked to find out that PDD Holdings Ltd, the parent company of Temu, recently filed its annual report stating that it had moved its global headquarters to St. Stephens Green in Dublin in November 2022. Temu is one of the largest online shopping platforms in the world, second only to SHEIN.
In addition to the congressional findings about Temu, a 2022 Channel 4 documentary on SHEIN highlighted that employees were working up to 18 hours a day and were being “paid as little as 4c per item made.” Intellexa has sold its Predator software to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, one player in the ongoing civil war which has left millions displaced.
With Ireland as the global or European headquarters of controversial global brands, the Irish treasury directly benefits from the suffering of others, the destruction of ecosystems and the perpetuation of global inequality.