The online auction website eBay has announced it is to create 800 new jobs at a facility in West Dublin by 2005. The announcement was widely expected and officially confirmed this afternoon. The jobs include eBay's payment systems subsidiary PayPal.
The Tánaiste Mary Harney welcomed the announcement, saying recruitment was already underway for the PayPal operations.
PayPal will establish its European headquarters in Blanchardstown, where 400 of the new jobs will be created in hosting PayPal's European customer services and financial services functions for the European market.
Next year eBay will establish its second customer support centre in Europe to provide services for its UK, Ireland and other European customers. This will employ up to 400 people by the end of 2005.
Last week 3Com confirmed it would close its manufacturing facility in Blanchardstown by the end of next February, with the loss of 640 jobs.
The Tánaiste confirmed today that the IDA had offered eBay an attractive grants package to locate in a regional location believed to be Athlone. However eBay chose to accept a lower grants package and to set up in the capital.
Mary Harney said grants were not necessarily the main factor in a company's decision on location, but added that it was a pity that the company had not followed the advice of the IDA and the Government and located outside Dublin.
IDA divisional manager Enda Connelly said locating in Dublin would facilitate a rapid start up - getting the jobs online by 2005. He added that as regional towns upgraded their facilities, they too would attract this kind of project.
