Dublin's attractiveness as a location for setting up international call centres has become a casualty of rising property prices and difficulties recruiting staff, according to a survey published in a British magazine this month. Belfast, in contrast, has become the most attractive site in Britain and Ireland.

The annual UK and Ireland Call Centre Location Study, carried out by Mitial Research and published in this month's Customer Contact Solutions magazine, says Belfast is the "most efficient location", and that Dublin is suffering because of what it called "supply management problems, notably in labour and property". Dublin, formerly a top 10 location, has fallen to 29th position out of 46 locations surveyed. The survey said Belfast topped the table of favourable locations due to a combination of low labour costs, good property options, high assistance levels, and good communications.

The top 10 locations were mostly former areas of high industrial employment, ensuring an adequate pool of available labour. The other nine locations were north Kent, Birmingham, east Kent, Co Durham, Coventry, Glasgow, Sheffield, Merseyside and Stoke.

On a more general note, the report found the Republic's east coast was coming to a standstill, but recommended that the west coast turned to smaller, more specialised call centres. Shannon came 24th on the list, while Galway came 30th, one position behind Dublin.

The criteria used to judge locations included labour costs and availability, property costs and availability, communications infrastructure, multi-lingual abilities, and availability of financial aid.

While the report predicted a westward shift in call centres being set up in the Republic, it predicted a corresponding northerly shift in Scotland, a southerly shift in England, and a westerly shift in Wales.

Eoin Licken can be reached at elicken@irish-times.ie