Last week, both Molex and Novartis announced a scaling down of their Irish operations. Around 800 people will lose their jobs.  Novartis, a pharmaceutical giant, announced 320 people will lose their jobs out of a total of 550 at its Cork campus over the next three years. Some 500 people will lose their jobs at Molex in Shannon, which produces electronic components.  Both companies are foreign-owned. In both cases, the business rationale for closing the plants was pretty clear. Novartis is getting hammered by low-cost rivals across the globe and needs to cut its costs. Following a review, it chose…