In one of IBM’s more unusual announcements, the company duly confirmed that it proposed to invest $350m in a new 100-acre campus in Mulhuddart, on the Dublin-Meath county border and that it would employ 2,850 people an enormous number – there within five years, but revealed what only 800 of that number will be doing. The first 800 people will be making platters to go into the disk drives that IBM makes in Hungary, but as for the other 2,050, they may be involved in manufacturing, services and software support, IBM says airily, refusing to say anything more concrete. Such reticence will lead many to assume that work currently done in much more expensive countries like Germany and France will be transferred to Ireland over time. Ireland is understood to be putting up between 25% and 33% of the cash, and also offers tax benefits.
