Sir, - Your leader (February, 12th) welcomes the news of the proposed Compaq investment in a teleservice centre in Dublin. In recent years Ireland has attracted, as you note, no less than 43 such investments and the jobs created now far exceed the initial targets for this sector by the IDA.
I recall now, with some amusement, the reaction of some politicans to Ruairi Quinn's original decision, as Minister for Employment and Enterprise in 1993, to target the teleservices sector after a job-seeking visit to the USA. His projection that 5,000 jobs could be created was met with sustained derision, most vocally from PD deputies.
They said it couldn't be done. They poured gallons of cold-water on the capacity of our phone system to service the sector. They said Minister Quinn was living in a fantasy world.
Obviously, they were wrong. But do they have the grace to admit it, or to wonder why their employment policies so lamentably failed and left 47 extra people without jobs for every day they spent in office, in contrast to the consistent good news on jobs that is now a staple part of our daily news diet? - Yours, etc.
Minister of State, Office of the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Baile Atha Cliath 2.