Ireland needs to up skill to attract Silicon Valley investment

Trade

21 June 2011

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Burton, has arrived back in Ireland after his trade mission to California. The purpose of the five day trade mission was to attempt to attract investment and employment opportunities to Ireland from Silicon Valley technology firms and to deliver the Government’s message that Ireland ‘is open for business’.

Upon his first day in California, the Minister was proud to announce that US firm Aruba Networks were investing in Ireland and creating 40 jobs.

Although the Minister met with 22 separate companies, including the top five technology companies in the USA, the Minister is presently unprepared to divulge whether any substantial fruits were generated from these meetings. However he confirmed that a number of announcements will be delivered in the coming weeks.

Minster Bruton stated that “I spent last week telling leading US companies at the highest level that Ireland is open for business, and the response I got was very positive.”

The Minister garnered a great deal of feedback from the Silicon Valley giants regarding how Ireland could continue to present itself as an attractive investment opportunity for global technology companies.

Describing the feedback the Minister commented that, “these companies told me is that in addition to retaining our absolute commitment to our corporation tax rate, we must ensure that our R&D tax credit system is globally competitive, our cost base is right and that our education system is fit for the demands of the new economy.”

It is evident that if Ireland can transform itself into a booming hub of global technological innovation then it will have to increase the amount of employable personnel with the necessary IT skills. It has been estimated that there are currently 3,500 vacancies in the Information Communications and Technology sector in Ireland. These vacancies have led to the announcement of over 2,000 one-year ICT training places as part of the Springboard programme from this September.

Minister Bruton affirmed that “Ireland is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new technology boom and reap a huge reward for our economy. We achieved this before with the real Celtic Tiger of the mid/late 1990s. I am determined that with hard work and ambitious policy changes we can do this again.”

Karrie Kehoe

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