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Martin Shanahan timed his IDA exit well

Latest jobs figures show a small decline in employment at agency’s clients companies amid tech sector slowdown

Former IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan vacated his role last year. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

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Sun Dec 17 2023 - 07:00

Martin Shanahan’s sense of timing is impeccable.

When the former chief of IDA Ireland announced his impending resignation from his sensitive role at the head of the State’s inward investment agency in July 2022, the global tech industry was still in the full of its pandemic-induced bloom with little sense that things were about take a turn for the worse.

Just a few months later, some of the biggest beasts of the tech world began announcing job cuts. Fast forward about a year or so and the likes of Meta, Amazon and Google, to name but a few of the larger players, have significantly trimmed their Irish headcounts, with the Republic accounting for an eye-watering 40 per cent of the total number of tech sector job cuts in the European Union so far, according to Eurofound.

This new reality is reflected in crystal-clear terms in IDA Ireland’s latest set of annual results. Published on Friday, the figures show that for the first time since the recession, the agency’s clients accounted for a smaller proportion of total employment in the State than in the previous year. Although the decline is small – 11.3 per cent of total employment compared with 11.6 per cent last year – it reflects a wider trend across IDA Ireland’s portfolio companies. All in all, IDA clients employed 1,014 fewer people than a year ago after some 17,857 jobs evaporated from the multinational sector.

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It must be said that the numbers are still roundly positive and Shanahan’s successor, Michael Lohan, was quick to point that out. For the second year in a row, there were 300,000 or more people working in IDA-related multinationals and a host of companies, particularly in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, announced fresh investments in 2023. It is, however, hard to escape the sense that Shanahan must have seen the writing on the wall when he announced his departure, ultimately taking up a role with Grant Thornton after departing IDA Ireland in October 2022, sooner than expected.

With the Irish and global economies facing into even stiffer headwinds next year, that decision may look even more astute in 2024.

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