Irish
Irish job losses were almost 3,000 in January; Top Irish tech firm Xsil considers moving key activities overseas
By Finfacts Team
Feb 4, 2007, 19:36

Xsil was founded in early 2000 by Peter Conlon, one year before he sold his former company, MVT Ltd., to Agilent Technologies for cash consideration in excess of €100 million.

Almost 1,000 of the job losses last month were in the service sector and 816 were in engineering and manufacturing. More than 290 were laid off in the building and civil engineering sectors.

In December, the Irish unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, according to figures from the European Union.

Reviews and announcements by Motorola, Vodafone, FCI Ireland, Thomson Scientific and Xerox, signal further job losses of over 2,000 at high profile firms.

Meanwhile the Sunday Business Post reports that leading Irish tech company Xsil, which makes machines to cut silicon for semiconductor companies, and has more than 150 employed in Dublin, is considering moving all its manufacturing to Asia and may also expand its R&D activities overseas.

Peter Conlon Founder and Chief Executive, has said that Xsil has a large number of foreign staff in Dublin but the practice is now less viable because of the high cost of living in Dublin. Xsil had a turnover of $46 million (€35.5) in in 2006, up from €27.9 million in 2005 when it made a profit of €6 million.

Conlon expects to make a decision on the manufacturing activities within three months and the R&D functions before the end of the year.

Xsil won the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 award in 2006 for being the fastest growing Irish tech company in over the previous five years.    

It's not all doom and gloom.

French pharmaceutical company Servier is expected to announce on Monday, February 12th, the planned establishment of a research centre, in a joint venture with University College Dublin. The UCD Servier Centre for Translational Medicine will include a clinical research programme and a bioinformatics and eHealth initiative. 

Last October, Servier, announced that it to invest a combined €184 million, with the support of IDA Ireland, to establish a new manufacturing pharmaceutical facility at Belview, Co. Kilkenny and to expand its existing operation in Arklow, Co. Wicklow. 

However, the mere fact that one of our indigenous high tech companies in considering quitting the country suggests that the Government's blasé attitude to the issue of competitiveness, the artificial scarcity of land and poor planning will reap a whirlwind when the property boom eases i.e without the expectation of a price collapse.