IN BRIEF
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IRELAND IS BEST PLACE TO INVEST IN WESTERN EUROPE
Ireland is the No 1 place to invest in western Europe, according to the annual global ‘Best-to-Invest’ rankings, as compiled by Site Selection magazine. The rankings, which are based
on analysis of business environ- ment, business risks, foreign di- rect investment and infrastructure by LocationSelec-
tor.comand by announcements of new and expanded facilities in 2011, placed Ireland ahead of the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzer- land and Italy. In terms of top metropolitan
locations in western Europe to invest, meanwhile, Dublin topped the list, followed by Frankfurt, Edinburgh and Birmingham.
APPLE ANNOUNCES MAJOR CORK EXPANSION
Apple has announced plans to create over 500 jobs over the next 18months in amajor expansion in Cork. Akey strategic client of IDA
Ireland, the company has been in Cork for over 30 years and currentlyemploys 2,800 people in the city. The expansionwill support the growth ofApple’s business in Europe, the Middle East, India andAfrica. “This development continues
the strong trend of investment over the past year in Ireland, in particular fromglobal ICT companies, and demonstrates Ireland's continuing success in attracting FDI additional investment,” said IDAIreland CEOBarryO'Leary.
IBM LOCATING GLOBAL SERVICES INTEGRATION HUB IN DUBLIN
The establishment of a new global services integrationhubinMulhuddart in Dublinwill see IBMcreating several hundrednewjobs. IDAIrelandCEOBarryO’Leary saidIre-
landwas chosen as the location for this in- vestment based on the strong partnership with the country, its accessibility and con- nectivity, established industry clusters and the infrastructure that the country has to offer. The IT giant currently employs over
3,000 people in Ireland and its current business activities include research, soft- ware development and services at its tech- nology campus in Mulhuddart, together with locations in Cork and Galway. It also has aEuropean sales and services support centre in Blanchardstown inDublin.
IRISH GOVERNMENT INVESTING €1.2MIN CLOUD COMPUTING INITIATIVE
As part of its Action Plan for Jobs, the IrishGovernment is investing€1.2min a programme tomake Ireland a world leader in cloud computing. The new Cloud Computing Technology
Research Centre will exist as a consor- tiumof third-level institutions. The funding will be allocated over 12
months to a consortium of higher educa- tion institutions to carry out the initial re- search programme. Led by Dublin City University, the consortium, which in- cludes University College Cork and Athlone Institute of Technology, with input fromthe Innovation Value Institute at NUI Maynooth, will work with a group of software companies to establish ways to generate business and profit fromcloud computing. TheCloudComputingTechnologyCen-
tre is the latest of 10 such thematically- based centres to be established jointly by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.
Louise Phelan, Paypal
PAYPAL ADDING 1,000 JOBS AT EUROPEAN OPERATIONS CENTRE IN DUNDALK
PayPal is creating 1,000 jobs over the next four years at a new European operations centre in Dundalk, Co Louth,which is set to open in July 2012. PayPal’s centres in Dublin,
which currentlyemploys 1,400 people, and Dundalkwill be re- sponsible for customer service, risk prevention, financial opera- tions,merchant services and sales across Europe, the Middle East andAfrica(EMEA). The company’s European op-
eration centre opened in Dublin in 2003with just 25 people. In 2009, the company invested €15min the establishment of a European centre of excellence in Blanchardstown,with the sup- port of IDAIreland. The Dublin centremanages all direct cus- tomer contact for PayPal’s busi- nesses acrossEMEAand its nearly 42million active accounts in these regions.
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 5
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