IN January this year, then Employment Minister Micheál Martin, not for the first time, said the secret to Ireland’s economic growth lay in ‘high-end’ high-skilled manufacturing rather than the traditional low-cost unskilled area.

A COMPUTER company that expanded its manufacturing on the back of the Tesco Computers for Schools contract yesterday shut down with the loss of 109 jobs.

IT manufacturing and distribution group, iQon, has acquired the brand, trademarks, e-business and franchise operations of Compustore Ltd.