[27.12.2006 first posted on silicon republic]
2006 was a watershed year for Ireland’s ICT sector with significant job, business, infrastructure and R&D gains.

January
The year 2006 got off to a portentous start with IDA Ireland chief executive Sean Dorgan predicting that the job gains of 2005 that saw significant research and development (R&D) investments by Microsoft, Xilinx and Palm looked set to continue. As 2006 proved, he was right. “We are seeing the results of a concerted effort in government policy to build a foundation of science and technology in our academic institutions and in particular to encourage strong business and academic collaboration,” said Dorgan.
This view was nicely complemented by the revelation by Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan that some 540 indigenous companies are now engaged in meaningful R&D. 2005 saw Irish firms notch up over €1bn in exports as part of a plan to grow exports to €3bn a year by 2007.
Indications that indigenous tech firms were feeling bullish came from Datapac, which revealed plans to double the number of work placement scholarships to 12 in 2006.
Proof that all was not well in the technology universe came with the sobering news from IE Internet that one in four Irish emails were infected by a virus.
The first of major broadband infrastructural developments occurred when Digiweb kicked off a €8.5m investment in 20 locations as part of its Metro 20 plan to rollout next generation broadband services to regional locations.
ComReg showed that the march of mobile in Ireland continued unabated when the country for the first time hit 100pc penetration, with some four million mobile subscribers in the country.
February
The quality and growing international importance of indigenous software companies was underlined in February when Dublin-based Similarity Systems was acquired by Californian firm Informatica in a deal valued at close to US$55m.
Equally the importance of R&D to the local economy was emphasised by a Forfás report that revealed total R&D spending in Ireland increased to €1.7bn during 2004, up 10pc on the previous year. The news was given added credibility by a slew of major R&D projects in Ireland that month by mobile operator Vodafone in Dublin, enterprise software player SAP in Belfast and Abtran in Cork.
Ireland’s value as a place to do business was given an unexpected boost by the revelation by Oracle Ireland managing director Paul O’Riordan that Ireland was the top-performing region in Europe for the company. Growth, he said, came right across all major market verticals and was evenly split between public and private sectors.
Home-grown network software maker Crannog Software showed that technology buying in Ireland was buoyant enough when it said it was on target to record revenues of €5m. Business development director Neil Wisdom said the growth would come from the indigenous market as well as from exports.
The first glimmer of true 3G broadband for Ireland came into view when Vodafone Ireland chief executive Teresa Elder revealed that the company would be launching its first high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) broadband products later in the year. The HSDPA technology is capable of quadrupling existing 3G data speeds from 384Kbps to around 1.2Mbps and higher.
Another landmark decision was made in the Irish communications world when O2 became the first operator to abolish roaming charges between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Communications minister Noel Dempsey called on other operators to “step up to the mark” and in the months that followed Vodafone and Meteor abolished cross-border roaming charges.
March
March was a very strong month for job announcements, particularly in the internet sphere. Online auction giant eBay’s sister company PayPal announced plans to create an additional 300 jobs in Blanchardstown, bringing total employment at the site to 1,200 people.
Another major dotcom retailer Amazon.com added to the euphoria with the news of some 450 new jobs in Cork in a new multilingual customer support centre. It proved to be a major coup for the IDA, which competed against Germany and Switzerland for the project.
In addition 130 jobs were announced in Donegal as part of a €1.3m investment by AssetCo, an enterprise systems player focused on the public sector market.
Californian chip firm Actel created an undisclosed number of jobs with the location of an R&D operation in Dublin.
Accounts and customer relationship management (CRM) software player Sage revealed that it was creating 40 jobs as part of a €3m investment, increasing the company’s Dublin headcount to 280 people. The decision to locate in the capital followed what the company described as an “exhaustive search” of locations, including China and India.
Amidst all this good news the darker side of the internet emerged. The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland, which operates the Hotline service aimed at curbing child pornography online, revealed that there had been a total of 5,102 reports received to www.hotline.ie by the end of December.
Developments in the indigenous space continued apace with Calyx’s acquisition of IT security firm Entropy for €4m. Ireland’s aspirations to become a global R&D powerhouse were strengthened by the news that the prestigious Georgia Tech Research Institute is establishing an applied research institute in Athlone as part of an IDA-backed €20m investment. The facility will create 50 highly qualified research positions within five years.
April
The rainy season of April saw more sunshine with the news that Pillar Data Systems planned to create 200 jobs in Louth as part of an IDA-backed investment that was aggressively fought over against other global locations.
April proved to be a momentous time for mergers and consolidation in the global IT sector after it emerged that communications giants Lucent and Alcatel agreed to merge, creating a juggernaut of a business with revenues of €21bn a year. Around the same time PC maker Dell signalled plans to acquire another PC manufacturer called Alienware, which employs 80 people in Athlone. Ireland saw its own indigenous version of all this consolidation when Cork-based PFH Computers agreed to merge with Galway-based CK Business Electronics, creating one of the largest privately held technology providers in the country.
Another Irish software company Steeltrace was acquired by veteran US technology company Computware for US$20m in cash. Fujitsu Services showed just how lucrative the public sector technology market is after winning a £155m sterling contract with the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel to roll out a new electronic human resources system.
The ongoing investment in R&D in Ireland was highlighted with news that UCD spin-off company ChangingWorlds unveiled plans to grow its NovaUCD-based R&D operation to 17 skilled researchers – representing a 70pc expansion.
By John Kennedy