Key employees ‘will have to live abroad’

Conor Keane, Business Correspondent

The EI boss said Irish managers and development engineers will have to live abroad for anything up to seven years to develop and grow their business with their top clients. Mr Ryan, who was speaking at the Cork Chamber of Commerce/Irish Examiner monthly business breakfast, said: “Irish managers will have to live and work abroad to get to know their customers’ needs and serve those needs.” He said the mission of EI, the government agency with responsibility for developing Irish industry, is to accelerate the development of world-class Irish companies to achieve strong positions in global markets, resulting in increased national and regional prosperity.

“At no other time has the future of the economy depended so heavily on the performance of indigenous companies. Structural and transformational change is taking place. Ireland’s future success increasingly lies in the research, commercialisation, production and sale of higher value added products and services to worldwide markets.

“As Irish companies increasingly reposition to bring more sophisticated products, services and customer solutions to world markets, Enterprise Ireland is changing to proactively meet the needs of Irish companies. We will join with our clients to bridge their strengths to the markets of the future.

Specifically, we will strongly support innovation and creativity within our client companies and work closely with them to achieve increased competitiveness and scale,” he said.

Mr Ryan pointed out that the regional economic impact arising from the activities of Irish companies during 2004 came to E17 billion in payroll and procurement expenditures, with every county in Ireland benefiting.

He said that this was exactly the same amount pushed into the economy by IDA-supported foreign companies based here.

Mr Ryan said that Ireland is witnessing strong growth in the number of entrepreneurs starting high value-added, high export potential companies in areas such as software, medical devices, engineering, food and biotechnology.

“Over the last number of years Enterprise Ireland has supported 470 such firms, which today employ 7,500 people and have a cumulative turnover of E1 billion. Equally encouraging has been the development of a thriving venture capital industry, driven by Enterprise Ireland, from which an increasing number of Irish companies source early stage and development capital funding,” he said.

The EI boss said over the past 10 years dramatic changes have taken place in the composition of Irish exports.