Defiant bosses issue recovery message

The organisation representing the country’s bosses issued a defiant recovery message last night in the face of official figures highlighting the scale of the economic slowdown this year.

The Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation insisted it was ‘‘only a matter of time’’ before the information technology sector - now a vital part of Ireland’s industrial future prospects - got over its ongoing downturn.

And the group launched an action plan to ensure the country would be a world leader in information and communications by 2005.

Microsoft executive Kevin Dillon, head of ICT Ireland, the representative body for the industry, maintained that the prospects were good for the sector - which has a 100,000 Irish workforce, and accounts for £18bn worth, or 27% of exports.

Mr Dillon declared ‘‘The purpose of the developing this strategic vision was to position Ireland to respond with speed, decisiveness and innovation to the const antly-changing demands of the global marketplace and to its emerging opportunities - and threats.’’

The IBEC move came after returns from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office showed that the gross national product during the second quarter slumped to 1.6% in the second quarter of the year - from 11% during the previous three months - and that unemployment was rising for the first time since 1996.

The CSO said the GNP stood at £14.7bn and reported a slowing in the rate of both imports and exports, while there was a 5.5% year-on-year rise in consumer spending.

On the jobs front, the quarter’s figures interrupted a long-running downhill trend in the number of jobless.

They showed that the total out of work was 79,000, an increase of 1,800 on the same time last year.

CSO spokesman Gerry O’Hanlon said ‘‘In absolute terms, the rise is not a huge number in the context of the overall unemployment level.

‘‘But it may mark a turn from an almost continuous drop over the past four or five years.

Ahead of the statistics’ publication, the airline ground-handling Servisair issued productive notice to 250 of its employees at Dublin airport and warned of possible jobs losses in orther parts of Ireland, including Belfast.

The slump in the air industry was blamed for the move.

In another development, the Dublin-based industrial diamonds manufacturer GE Superbrasive said they would be laying off 75 workers.

The latest blows to Ireland’s employment position prompted Fine Gael to claim the Government had squandered the so-called Celtic Tiger economic boom and was unable to deal with the new situation.

But there was some relief for the position today, when Tánasite Mary Harney announced plans for an American health company to invest more than £2m in a new facility at Crossmolina, Co Mayo, resulting in 210 new jobs.

The company involved, DeCare International, is a leading figure in the United States dental benefits industry.

The Crossmolina operation will process dental insurance claims in conjunction with another of the firm’s bases, at nearby Claremorris.