Companies backed by IDA Ireland created 9,200 jobs in 2007, a decrease of 2,000 on the previous year.
But in the organisation's end of year statement, its new chief executive Barry O'Leary says it is in a good position to win further leading job creation projects.
The IDA says €2.3 billion went into new projects last year, €310m of this on research and development. Some of the big names which expanded in Ireland were Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline and Merrill Lynch.
There were also some significant job losses at companies such as Dell, which announced 100 voluntary lay-offs.
Overall the number of people working in companies backed by the IDA remained at 136,000. The agency said two-thirds of 2007 projects were located outside Dublin. But it warned that all interested parties would have to think regionally, not locally - and in line with the National Spatial Strategy - if this were to continue.
Internationally there are fears of a recession in the US and the credit squeeze is making expansion more difficult for companies. But the Mr O'Leary is upbeat about prospects for 2008, saying the IDA has a healthy pipeline of new projects.
Meanwhile, the Small Firms Association said redundancy figures for last year showed that there was no room for complacency. There were 25,459 lay-offs last year, an increase of 7.5% on 2006.
SFA director Patricia Callan said firms were coming under severe pressure from global competition, while higher domestic costs in areas such as electricity, gas, local authority and waste were undermining their competitive position.
