Figures show that the number of people working for companies backed by state agency IDA Ireland now stands at just over 135,000, up 3,795 compared with the end of 2005.
The agency's end-of-year statement shows that 11,846 new jobs were added, though just over 8,000 were lost. This is slightly less than in 2005 but the net gain is slightly ahead of 2005. IDA Ireland said it negotiated 71 new business projects in 2006 involving a total investment of €2.6 billion. Investment in research and development projects was €470m, up from €260m in 2005.
IDA chief executive Sean Dorgan said the agency's emphasis had shifted from increasing job numbers to attracting higher quality and better paid jobs. The agency's statement said more than half of the new jobs last year had wage and salary levels of more than €40,000 a year. Mr Dorgan said there was a 'good pipeline' of potential investments for 2007.
IDA Ireland said more than 60% of new projects last year were located outside Dublin, with 85% of research and development projects also going outside the capital. But it warned that it was competing for these projects mainly with cities of more than a million people, and Irish locations needed a critical mass of talent, infrastructure and business services to attract investment. As a result, it urged strong support for the National Spatial Strategy, and called on locations to think and act regionally, not locally.
Mr Dorgan called for continued heavy investment in infrastructure, and urged the new National Development Plan to focus on transport, energy and measures to encourage more students to study science and engineering. 'If we fail to provide essential infrastructure quickly, Dublin may falter and regions fail,' he said.
