Ebay, the online trading platform, is expanding in Dublin with the creation of at least 300 new jobs. The new positions will bring the company's workforce to more than 1,200 at Blanchardstown in the north of the city.
The growth comes just two years after eBay established a customer support centre in Blanchardstown, and three years after the eBay-owned online payments company PayPal, set up its international headquarters in the same campus.
The companies said yesterday that they needed to build on their operations in Dublin because of growth in both businesses.
The new staff, who should be in place by the end of the year, will include multilingual employees in areas such as customer support, financial processing, risk operations, risk underwriting, compliance and finance. Senior managers will also be hired.
The eBay and PayPal teams in Dublin provide support to the European eBay and PayPal websites, including those in the Republic, the UK, France, Belgium, Poland and Germany.
Founded in 1995, eBay is the world's largest online marketplace, with more than 181 million registered users, more than 50,000 categories of goods and more than 78 million items on sale at any one time.
The site is based on trust, with buyers and sellers relying on each other to honourably follow through on transactions.
PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, provides secure infrastructure to allow electronic payments on sites such as eBay to be processed. Genny Tap, eBay's European customer support director, said the company had decided to set up in Dublin originally because of the Republic's strong business and technology infrastructure. "The decision was well-researched and proven, and we are again looking to expand our footprint in Ireland," Ms Tap said.
As part of the latest phase, eBay and PayPal have signed a lease on a new building in Blanchardstown, with the facility to be occupied within the next six months. Aileen O'Toole, senior manager in PayPal's human resources division, said the recruitment drive reflected "a phenomenal success story" at Blanchardstown.
Ms O'Toole highlighted the availability of multilingual staff as one of Dublin's greatest benefits. It can be hard to find such a diverse workforce in other locations, she said.
Ebay invested in the Republic beyond the customer service centre last year when it opened a dedicated Irish site. More than 200,000 users are registered for this service.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, yesterday welcomed news of the 300 new jobs.
"It is a major testament to the quality of Ireland's workforce and as such further highlights Ireland's ability to support knowledge-intensive, high-skill business," he said.
"IDA and the Government continues to work closely with eBay in growing and developing its business in Ireland," Mr Martin added.
