CHAMPAGNE corks popped yesterday as a fast growing Irish microchip design company announced a £15 million development plan that will require 100 new jobs. And while managers at Silicon Systems Design were enthusiastic about the project, Forbairt, the development agency for indigenous firms, also had reason for satisfaction.

For five years, executives at Forbairt have laboured, quietly building the foundations for domestic electronic companies to flourish.

In 1993, when Digital moved its manufacturing operation to Scotland, Forbairt moved quickly to support the employees that had been cut loose. With the agency's backing, five new companies emerged Multis in Galway, remanufacturing computer equipment; MDS Telephone Systems in Clonmel, making telephone parts; Lasertec in Dublin, manufacturing laser formed stencils for printed circuit boards; and Toucan Technologies in Galway, which designs integrated circuits.

The fifth, and most successful, is Silicon Systems Design. Established in 1993 with team of 18 engineers it has already grown fivefold.

Shortly after SSD was formed, the company went to SGS Thomson in Milan, and asked the multi national to take a 20 per cent stake. It agreed within a week, kick starting what turned out to be a fruitful strategic alliance.

The Irish company's managing director, Mr Brian Long, said yesterday that the company had an annual turnover in 1996 of £12 million, and that its order books were already bulging for this year. It now employs 94 engineers, and will hire another 40 this year.

"The pace at which the electronics industry in Ireland is moving is exceeding the rate at which students are graduating," Mr Long explained. "Our growth is now dictated principally by the availability of engineers."

The theme was take up by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton. He promised yesterday to take proposals to the Cabinet within the next few weeks to address the imbalance.