Pre-tax profits at the Irish R&D arm of chip giant, Intel fell by almost a quarter last year. Intel Shannon Ltd has reported profit of $4.1 million in 2012, down from $5.4 million the previous year as revenues slipped 5 per cent to $56.5 million.

Researchers at Intel’s “Irish Design Centre” in Shannon are engaged in developing the most advanced silicon technology and new figures show the 213 staff shared $22.4 million in remuneration.

The figures show that the pay to the 213 staff, including directors, included $17.9 million in salaries with $2.66 million in share-based payments along with $1.83 million in pension costs. A total of 177 staff are engaged in R&D with 36 in management, administration that includes sales and marketing.

R&D personnel at Intel’s Shannon base deal in nanometres, which is a billionth of a metre, giving 3,000 electrical devices on the width of a human hair.

The figures show that the company’s operating profits decreased by 24.5 per cent from $5.3 million to $4 million, which directors attributed to “movements in expenditure that is rechargeable to Intel Corporation under the R&D recharge agreement held between the company and the Intel corporation”.

On the company’s future developments, the directors state that the company “will continue to research and develop improvements in communication and networking technologies”.

The figures show that the profit last year takes account of €2.5 million in non-cash depreciation with directors’ remuneration decreasing from €507,096 to €443,568.

Shannon Development’s annual report for 2011 revealed that the agency paid€3.5 million in grant aid funding to Intel Shannon during that year bringing to a total of €9.57 million paid in grant aid to the firm by the agency.

The payments to the firm in 2011 accounted for over half of the grant aid payments made by Shannon Development to all firms in the Free Zone in that year. The accounts show that the company's cost of sales last year increased from $49.4m to $50.2m, while administrative expenses increased from $4.4m to $2.2m.

The filings show that the company has $37.1m in shareholder funds with $25.1m in accumulated profits.