February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
There have long been concerns that regions like Eastern Europe and the Indian subcontinent, where labor costs are much lower, will increasingly win the kind of inward investment that drove Ireland’s growth during the 1990s.
But competition can come from closer to home too. It was revealed last Thursday that Ireland had lost out to Scotland in its bid to attract a major facility that is being set up by computer giant Dell.
The corporation, which has its headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, will base the center in Glasgow. By doing so, it will immediately bring 500 jobs to the Scottish city on the banks of the Clyde. In time, the workforce may rise to 1,500, the company said. The jobs are understood to be predominantly in the areas of sales and technical support.
Hopes had been high in Ireland that the County Louth town of Dundalk would host the center. But the Irish Independent reported that Scottish Development International — the agency charged with attracting inward investment — offered Dell an exceptional package of incentives to base the new facility in Glasgow.
Dell’s decision will set off tremors in Ireland. But its significance need not be exaggerated. Just two months ago, Dell opened its flagship Enterprise Command Center in Limerick. The center will serve Dell customers throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In November 2004, Dell announced plans to expand its operations at Cherrywood in County Dublin. The expansion will result in the creation of a high-end business center — and 420 jobs by 2007. At the time, Micheal Martin, Ireland’s minister for enterprise, trade and employment, claimed that the development was “a significant further commitment by Dell to Ireland, and involves a substantial deepening of the role the Irish operation will fulfill in Dell’s highly successful European business”.
Tim McCarthy, Dell Ireland’s general manager, announced that the decision was influenced by the high quality of Irish-based employees and by “the quality of the relationship that we enjoy with the Irish government and its agencies.”
That relationship may be slightly strained following the decision to base the new facility in Glasgow, but it is likely to remain cordial. After all, Ireland’s development agency, the IDA, estimates that for the year ended January 2004, Dell’s “significant value” to the Irish economy totaled over