FRANKLY INTEL

FRANK McCabe is in charge of Intel in Leixlip, Ireland's biggest high technology manufacturer. Computers - more specifically microchips - are his life. And life, it seems, is good for this Irishman.

The sixth son, all of whom are engineers, has spent his entire working life with high tech firms. "It's the most exciting industry," he enthuses, almost as soon as you meet him.

He was the man who brought the first semi-conductor plant to Ireland in 1965. That plant, which was owned by GE, is still in operation and still run by GE. From there he went to Digital, eventually becoming vice-president of all research and development in the US.

His Monaghan accent is now coloured with a hint of California - the mother tongue of the Intel bosses who recruited him from Digital.

Although he says he is not sure how important it was, others at Intel say that his Irishness was a factor in convincing the company to locate in the Republic. Over per cent of the 4,000 Intel employees in Leixlip are Irish.

The FAB plant in Leixlip is among the four biggest Intel fabrication facilities in the world and is the largest outside the United States. The only other manufacturing facility outside the US is in Israel. The Irish facility is three times as big as that one in terms of investment and will be over twice the size in terms of employment, when the new plant now under construction as part of its major expansion plan, comes on line.

Intel has also proved to have been an excellent investment to the Irish taxpayer. The annual rate of return to the Exchequer is over 40 per cent, according to Mr McCabe, far in excess of what would normally be expected.

Mr McCabe's corner space - all of Intel is open plan and no-one has an office - is accessible to all employees. The outside observer gets the impression of a flat hierarchy - straight out of the latest human resources textbook. Few of the staff wear traditional work clothes. Neither Mr McCabe nor his, chairman have parking spaces. "It's last in - furthest out," Mr McCabe explains.

At the same time the atmosphere is nothing like the traditional campus feeling of the large software firms. It is very much a manufacturing plant, filled with engineers.

While there are no unions at Intel - and certainly none encouraged - Mr McCabe insists that staff happiness is a priority. It is unlikely that the company will adhere to the pay conditions in Partnership 2000, if it is signed, as it is likely to pay more. "We have to hang on to the best and the brightest and you do that by being competitive," he says.

In this regard Intel is almost a victim of its own success. It is one of the flagship plants around which IDA Ireland shows other prospective high tech investors. Without the credits garnered from attracting Intel, other companies may have been more reluctant to take the leap.

Hewlett-Packard situated just down the road is one such example. When it started up, around 30 or 40 Intel employees took up the challenge of starting again at another greenfield site. But Mr McCabe is not overly worried about this.

"The only certainty about this environment is change," he says. "And while we don't have a high staff turnover there is always some movement in this kind of business."

Mr McCabe has overseen rapid growth in the company during the last year. Net income was up 40 per cent while revenue grew by 30 per cent. The staff have seen the immediate benefit of this. As you walk around the offices the signs outlining the dates of the latest bonus payments are ever present. This year the permanent staff received three bonuses amounting to about 16 per cent of pay as well as a special once-off payment of £600.

All of Intel's "core" employees are permanent. The short contracts of last year have disappeared. Contracts are now confined to construction workers and those employed by outside catering and other services. The company is still recruiting. Mr McCabe estimates that 400 additional workers will be taken on before the end of March. And that is before the new FAB plant is completed next year.

Intel in Ireland has also set records which are related with some relish by Mr McCabe. It produced the world's first eight inch wafers of pure silicon, before that all wafers were six inches. It is the biggest supplier of Pentium chips in the world. Last year FAB 10, as the Irish operation is known won the Intel award for the finest operation.

The new operation which is under construction will be state of the art for the new century technology. It will produce post-Pentium Pro products which will be constructed at line widths of 0.25 of a micron, says Mr McCabe. The current chips work on the basis of being 0.6 of a micron, which is 166 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

But Intel is not all about chips. The Irish factory also supplies "motherboards" and systems. Around half of the workforce are actually involved in manufacturing other building blocks for the big computer companies.

The product is valuable. Across the world, chip robbery is on the increase. As a result security is tight. As this journalist walked in with Mr McCabe the security woman demanded that he come back down to show his pass, which he had forgotten. Every night, he insists, the security staff leaf through his briefcase to make sure he is not smuggling out any valuable cargo.

The only "chips" he carries with him relate to things which slow down progress. The buzz words, which Mr McCabe repeats like a mantra are "agility, speed and flexibility."

One threat he sees to all this progress is European legislation. While he refuses to be specific Mr McCabe stresses that the Government must "look very carefully" at the cumulation of employment directives coming from Brussels.

The other is the possibility of low levels of corporation tax running out after 2010. He insists that the Exchequer is not losing out from these low levels of tax. According, to Intel's own private research attracting Intel was on the best investment decision ever for the Irish taxpayer. "It's a win, win situation," he says. "It's jobs, jobs, jobs and that's what matters."