Ireland's Tánaiste Unveils Continued Investment In High-Tech Companies

by Amanda Banks, Tax-news.com, London

22 May 2001

Ireland's Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Mary Harney, announced last week that, in the 12 months to the end of March 2001, total investments of I£54 million had been made by 41 Irish owned companies in expansions and start-up projects in the International Financial Services Centre.

Supported by Enterprise Ireland, the investments are expected to lead to the creation of more than 1700 new jobs over the next two to three years. In addition, Enterprise Ireland supported research and development investments of I£10 million in 17 high-tech companies in the same period.

The Tánaiste made her announcement at the Enterprise Ireland Forum last week. Entitled 'Creating Creative Industries', the forum focused on building competitive Irish digital media companies with global capability.

Commenting on the review of Enterprise Ireland's activities in the sector, the Tánaiste said: 'The Irish owned internationally traded services sector is a substantial contributor to wealth creation in the economy and is a significant vehicle for employment growth. While I acknowledge that technology companies are operating in a more difficult environment, these figures demonstrate that the international services sector is likely to remain a key-growth area. The 58 companies supported by Enterprise Ireland are mainly in the categories of eBusiness, financial services, telecommunications and new media.'

She added: 'The availability of venture capital, particularly at the high risk early stage development of these companies, is critical. The current tightness of the VC market is all the more reason for Enterprise Ireland to bridge the gap until more normal cycles return. The high number of start-up companies is particularly indicative of the strength of the sector. The Government is committed to the further development of the sector and, through Enterprise Ireland, will continue to invest in and support additional start-up projects. New High Growth Start-Ups are a key ingredient of any successful economy and will continue to be one of the major building blocks in the ongoing expansion of Ireland’s knowledge based industry.'

Peter Coyle, Director of Enterprise Ireland, said: 'Despite the current climate, Enterprise Ireland is determined to seriously ramp up the numbers of new high-tech start-ups. We want to see the average annual rate of start-ups rise from 40 currently to 60 over the next two years. The ITS 2007 Strategy, identified the key growth areas as Digital Media, Informatics, eBusiness and Health Science. Our aim is to increase the scale of the Irish owned sector to I£4 billion in sales by 2007.'

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