Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, T.D., at eBay Jobs Announcement

Good morning,

I am delighted to join you here at eBay's European Centre of Excellence for this important announcement, involving the creation of 150 new, highly skilled jobs in Customer Service.

Along with PayPal, eBay’s online payment system, this fantastic Company already employs over 1,600 people at Blanchardstown. It is great to see the Company continuing to prosper - and continuing to generate significant employment in this part of Dublin.

eBay, as you know, is the world’s largest online marketplace, where you can buy and sell practically anything. To date, the site has more than 90 million users globally; and last year, the total value of goods sold on eBay came to $60 billion - or $2,000 every second!

eBay also features eBay.ie, a dedicated site for Irish users launched in 2005. This provides a safe and secure environment in which to trade practically anything on a local, national and international platform. 

The expansion of this Centre is a very positive boost for the digital enterprise sector. On behalf of the Irish Government, I want to commend eBay for its continued dedication to the Irish market and for continuing to offer excellent career opportunities to the Dublin community. The decision to increase the workforce here by a further 150 people shows that our capital city can provide the flexible and skilled workforce necessary to help this iconic global brand grow further in the period ahead.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank the following people, here with us here today, who have been responsible for eBay’s continued success here in Ireland:

Andrew Pease, Senior Site Director; Deborah Davis - VP Customer Support & Operations Europe; and Clive Curtis - Senior Director of Service Development.

I would also like to acknowledge the role played by IDA Ireland, whose long and close relationship with eBay was a major influence on the Company’s original decision to locate here and also on this new expansion. Well done to IDA Ireland for securing another knowledge-based expansion.

Just last week I launched the Report of the Innovation Task Force. The Report recommends measures to make Ireland a global innovation hub - the best place in Europe to locate and grow an innovative company.

The Taskforce identifed plenty of opportunities - particularly given the the base of leading multinationals who already have operations here and the investment we have made in building our research base over recent years.

The challenge is to use the current crisis to restructure so that we can benefit when the global economy recovers.The presence of eBay here in  Ireland and the development of its Irish operation is a perfect fit with these plans for the future and underlines the Irish Government's commitment to supporting overseas companies as they develop here.

As part of our strategy, I would like to assure eBay that the Government will continue to invest heavily in education to ensure a supply of skilled, multilingual graduates in order to assist companies such as yours to grow their operations further.

This latest expansion is very welcome news. It is a significant endorsement by eBay of its Irish operation. It represents a major vote of confidence in Ireland as a location for investments of strategic importance to an international company’s future growth and development worldwide. And it shows that we continue to have the capability and the capacity to attract high quality Foreign Direct Investment, despite a difficult global economic climate.

I wish eBay every success with this expansion - the Company has the Government’s and IDA Ireland’s fullest support as it grows and further embeds its operations in this country.

Thank you.