An Olympic silver medallist from the Ivory Coast, a former Euro Disney Mickey Mouse and a French fireman are among those who have taken up employment in a new Dublin-based addition to the growing list of international call centres operating here.
The Lufthansa/United Airlines centre resembled the Tower of Babel on a good day as it was officially opened yesterday: it is populated by 300 language specialists who are poised to deal with queries originating in Europe and covering such diverse languages as Flemish, Swiss German, Japanese and Arabic.
About half the staff are Irish and Lufthansa confirmed that although there are no dedicated lines, calls as Gaeilge are within the remit of some of the native linguistic experts.
The recruit from the Ivory Coast who won his Olympic medal in karate in 1988 keeps his Bete, spoken in the central west part of his native country, in reserve should the occasion arise. Having abandoned a career as a full-time karate coach, he is now relying on his expertise in English, French and Spanish to pay his way.
The two airline companies are operating independently, although they share the same central computer and switch.
Mr Gerry Thornton, of Intelcom Consultants, the company which installed the £2 million of equipment including 75 miles of cable, said that the system could deal with more than 400 calls simultaneously. The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, said the call centre industry now employed 6,000 people which would rise to 10,000 within a few years. The new centre had taken the place of 50 different pan-European call centres, she added.
