Voltar página anterior
Subir (TRABALHO)
Trading Places By John Mulligan (the article appeared in the December/January 2008 edition of "CARA" magazine, published on behalf of
Aer Lingus by Harmonia Ltd)
Last September, Poland's then opposition leader, Donald Tusk, was in Dublin glad-handing some of the 63,000 of his fellow citizens who have been lured to Ireland by the promise of well-paying jobs.
It was the first time a Polish politician had gone abroad to canvass votes. The decision paid off for Tusk, leader of the Civic Platform party. In October, that party emerged victorious in Poland's snap parliamentary election, putting Tusk in the prime minister's office.
For Tusk the win was sweet, but his visit to Ireland (his election campaign also included England and Scotland) brought into focus how utterly Europe has been transformed in less than 20 years. To the east, the old Communist regimes crumbled, while to the west, Ireland, for decades an economic backwater, now ranks as one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
According to the International Monetary Fund, on a per cita gross domestic product basis, Ireland is the second-richest nation on the planet, pipped only by Luxembourg and trailed by Norway, the US and Iceland. Even as Ireland's heady growth rates decelerate, the economy is still outperforming its western European neighbours.
The fact hasn't been lost on hundreds of thousands of migrants to Ireland, not only from Eastern Europe, but perhaps more surprising, from countries such as France, the world's fourth largest economy.
"We get between 600 and 1000 enquiries a month from France, Spain, Germany and Italy," said John Murat, operations director of Dublin-based Approach People, a recruitment agency established primarily to secure Irish jobs for French nationals. Since it opened its doors in 2000, it has placed 1000 of them inpostions within Ireland with companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Accenture.
"The majority of them come for jobs in the IT sector, customer services or acounting," adds Murat, a native of Lyon. "It's been a surprise, but a good one."
Murat adds that while France's economy remains relatively strong, Ireland provides more of an opportunity to get ahead based on ability, rather than the number of grey hairs on your head, Multinationals, particularly those from the US, have found that a pro-business stance in Ireland fits neatly with their home country's ethos.
"There are issues in Ireland such as the economic over-relaiance on the construction sector and an erosion of competitiveness, but you have to look at the overall
value-add," says Cormac Costelloe, managing director of CIT Vendor Finance Europe, which recently announced it will hire a further 150 staff at it's Dublin base, bringing total employment at the office to 450. The subsidiary is part of New Jersey-headquartered CIT, a Fortune 500 company that provides commercial and consumer financing to companies such as DEll and Avaya.
"Availability of labour, an attractive tax scheme and the pro-business environment in Ireland are all critical factors for a company such a sCIT," adds Costelloe, noting that most of the company's Dublin staff are from outside Ireland.
Other business leaders agree. John Herlihy, Google Europe's director of on-line sales and operations, always likes to point out that there are 167 languages spoken in Dublin, making it a natural base for the company. "It certainly isn't hard to attract employees," he says. "And it's a great benefit to the Irish economy to be able to bring in these well-educated immigrants." Google employs over 800 people in Ireland and is planning to boost that number to beyong 1400.
Subir (TRABALHO)
But as Irish economic growth slows, is the party coming to an end?
A few weeks ago, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Ireland could suffer a 'significant slowdown' in GDP growth even if there is only a 'benign assumption' of a decline in construction activity in the country. S & P said that if this happens, 2008 GDP growth could plummet to 1 per cent. It also added that Ireland would experience a worsening fiscal position as a consequence, if current government spending plans remained unchanged.
"We´ve just had a frentic boom, and this is really just a pause for breath," counters Austin Hughes, chief economist withIIB bank. He warns however, tha poor infrastructure is still the most significant restraint on further growth. "There's no doubt about that," he says. "We´re really playing a catch-up game."
Hughes doesn't think the slide in projected growth rates is a big issue. It's still easy to get a job here, and it would take some very substantial negative impact to change that. We're still a very appealing location for foreign workers too, with a reasonably open society and attractive labour laws."
Despite Ireland's attractiveness, multinationals based in the country still have to make strong pitches to their head offices for further investment. In 2006, Ireland secured 9.2 billion euros in foreign direct investment, a figure that certainly fell in 2007. "Just because we've been here for 25 years doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels," says David Urbanek, general manager for Eli Lilly iin Ireland.
"We had to make a strong business case to recently attract the substantial investment in the Cork operation," he adds, referring to the Swiss pharmaceutical firm's decision last year to invest 400 million euros at it's Cork facility which will add 200 jobs to its 400-strong Irish workforce. Pharmaceutical group Pfizer also intends investing 353 million euros in a new plant in Cork, adding 500 jobs to its Irish headcount.
Back in Poland, meanwhile, Donald Tusk is hoping to coax his emigrant workforce home to meet labour shortages. Helping them find jobs when they get there, will be what else, but an Irish recruitment firm "It can be tough getting people at the moment," according to Mark Two mey of Sigamr Recruitment, who overseas the company's Warsaw and Gdansk offices. "We really have to pull out all the stops." And so will Tusk.
(John Mulligan is a freelance business journalist who writes for The Sunday Times, The Irish Times and The Sunday Independent)Subir (TRABALHO)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
Residents of the Republic of Ireland by country of Birth
| Northern Ireland | 50,172 |
| Britain | 221,609 |
| Poland | 63,090 |
| US | 25,181 |
| France | 9,307 |
| Germany | 11,797 |
| Latvia | 13,999 |
| Lithuania | 24,808 |
| Slovakia | 8,201 |
| China | 11,218 |
| Nigeria | 16,677 |
| Philippines | 9,664 |
| India | 9,342 |
| Austalia | 6,624 |
| Others | 130,960 |
Subir (TRABALHO)
Mercado e Eventos – SP: 30.01.08