In recent weeks, many multinational tech companies have either made staff redundant or implemented hiring freezes. All eyes have been on Facebook’s parent company Meta, Stripe, and Twitter but, as Irish Times business and technology correspondent Ciara O’Brien pointed out in an interview for this newspaper’s In the News podcast, “when these companies come to Ireland… people have left Google, Intercom and Stripe and gone on to found their own companies, so there is a vibrant start-up industry in Ireland.”
The current woes of the tech industry are not likely to be its death knell. Years ago, Dell Technologies closed its manufacturing plant in Ireland but the company now employs more people in Ireland than before - just in different roles. Since then, Ireland has gone from strength to strength as a global digital hub, with a strong indigenous base alongside a range of multinationals with their Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters here. More than 200,000 people are employed in the sector here and it accounts for 13 per cent of Ireland’s GDP.
But why has Ireland become so strong in this sector and, in such an uncertain time, what does the future hold?
Mark Cockerill, vice-president at ServiceNow, a cloud-based platform and solutions company, says that Ireland’s highly diverse, innovative, young and skilled workforce has made it into a global digital hub.
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“Alongside this, you have strong cultural similarities between the US and Ireland; we share the same language and a common-law system, which helps companies expanding into Europe [to] maintain operational and brand cohesiveness.”
Tadhg Young is country head of State Street Ireland, a provider of financial services to institutional investors. He agrees that talent, coupled with constant innovation, make Ireland an attractive destination - and he adds that the country’s time zone makes it key for support purposes outside the US.
Jason Ward, vice-president and managing director of Dell Technologies, says that the extensive collaborations between industry and the third-level sector have helped to foster a vibrant digital sector, and that collaboration between industry, academia and Government is vital for Ireland to realise its digital ambitions.
“At Dell Technologies Ireland, we have developed strong partnerships with leading universities across Ireland. Through the use of our AI platform powered by a supercomputer, researchers at MTU are now able to accelerate their cutting-edge projects in areas ranging from manufacturing and finance to marketing and agriculture.”
Ward says that Ireland’s strength as a digital hub positions it to become a global leader in Edge Computing, that 5G is a game-changer for Irish businesses and that the Dell Technologies team is working on products and services in these and other spheres.
“5G is more than just enhanced connectivity,” he says. “It can help us accelerate the creation of digital cities in Ireland and a surge in new smart mobility services from autonomous vehicles to connected scooters.”
Young says that there are still many opportunities in the digital sphere.
“Digitalisation is opening up a brand new set of opportunities for market participants across the board. New digital technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics, have enabled us to bring together data and intelligence to help in the creation of new digital products and services, as well as the enhancement of traditional ones with digital features. One such innovation is the growth in blockchain technology, which is set to cause a dramatic shift across all sectors of our industry, including asset owners and asset managers.”
Ultimately, much of Ireland’s success comes from years of companies investing here and an ecosystem being built over time.
Young says that the investment in Ireland from international corporations has created a multiplier effect.
“Subsidiary jobs emerge and feed into the wider economy,” he says. The availability of Cloud services and EMEA hubs in Ireland, such as Microsoft and Amazon, is second to none as it allows companies to use their ramps for connectivity globally.”
The country’s long-established reputation in technology and the amazing ecosystem that has emerged over the past 20 years make it a really attractive place to be, says Cockerill. “While Ireland is home to nine out of ten of the top global software companies, it’s worth remembering that they are just part of a much larger tech community of almost 1,000 tech companies.”