Chamber of Commerce hopes to keep eBay jobs

There is hope that new office space in Dundalk can be found to accommodate the expansion plans of eBay and keep the major employer in the town, the local chamber of commerce has said.

It comes as a number of local TDs expressed concerns about whether Dundalk might lose out on any new jobs created by eBay because its former sister company PayPal — which is housed in the same building — is also growing rapidly.

Last year PayPal announced plans to hire more people at its Dundalk offices.

Paddy Malone, spokesman for Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, said he is confident eBay would be accommodated in new premises in the town. He believed eBay had nonetheless looked at potential other locations in the Republic.

Mr Malone said it was “a considerable coup” when Dundalk secured the PayPal investment in 2011 and then won the eBay jobs two years later. A subsequent formal stock market separation, however, meant the two companies went their own ways.

Mr Malone said he does not think eBay will pull out of Dundalk but the company had, as a matter of good business practice, been looking at potential other locations. “They are a good employer,” he said.

A spokesman for Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor said she had a discussion with the IDA chief executive about eBay. However, the spokesman said the department’s policy was not to “discuss the circumstances of individual companies due to commercially sensitive reasons”.