Madam, – I was somewhat surprised to read the editorial piece entitled (“Attracting investment”, July 10th) in which IDA Ireland was inaccurately linked to the pursuit of a policy of deliberate deflation in order to gain competitiveness. I wish to clarify that IDA Ireland is not pursuing a general policy of pushing down wages in the multinational sector.
The final paragraph of the editorial piece is at variance to the reporting of the IDA’s annual report press conference at which it was stated that the IDA is aware of threats to approximately five to six thousand jobs in leading multinational companies. These threats exist where global reviews of existing sites are being undertaken. It should be noted that 2008 saw a 14 per cent increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) on the previous year bringing the total number of FDI investments in 2008 to 130.
Twenty-two per cent of these investments were research, development and innovation projects and overall 8,837 new jobs were created in IDA client companies in 2008 with a total investment of €2 billion. The matter of potential salary reductions relates to a small number of IDA client companies, less than 5 per cent of the jobs supported by the agency, in which the Irish operation is at a competitive disadvantage to sister sites in other developed economies.
Given that IDA is discussing these matters with their senior management and in my experience employees would rather be part of a dialogue that results in reduced take-home remuneration rather than lose their job, it is only appropriate that we should highlight these matters.
I wish to reiterate that neither IDA nor I are advocating a general policy of wage reduction across the multinational portfolio. – Yours, etc,