Tech giant Cisco to expand Irish operation

ELECTRONICS AND communications giant Cisco is planning to expand its Irish operations in Galway. Cisco’s European president Chris Dedicoat said the investment is part of the company’s growing commitment to Ireland.

“Ireland is delivering exactly what it was expected to do and more,” said Mr Dedicoat in Davos.

“We’ve found Ireland to be very productive in term of capability. We’ve found it very beneficial to research and development: the quality of products, the quality of engineers, the ability to collaborate on a global basis.”

Cisco is one of the world’s largest technology companies, with annual revenues of more than €30 billion in 2010 and 20,000 employees worldwide.

Cisco’s Irish operation, which opened in Furbo, Co Galway, five years ago, employs 180 people locally and 100 in Dublin.

Corkman Barry O’Sullivan, the head of the Irish business, said that continued research and development expansion was planned next month but declined to go into detail. He said the company took on 20 graduates last year and would take on even more in 2012.

“The quality of engineering graduates is improving, with more people choosing engineering as a career than four or five years ago,” said Mr OSullivan.

For Cisco, Irish graduates and tax breaks for research and development are a more important factor than Ireland’s low corporate tax rate. Mr Dedicoat said the tax issue is “one part, it always is, but the key for us, from a research and development perspective, is a sustainable supply of talent”.

Mr Dedicoat said that research and development was crucial at all stages of the economic cycle.

“RD is not about good times and bad times, it’s about investing for the future. What you do today is a product in two to three years’ time,” he said. “It’s about access to highly qualified, capable engineers. And the universities of Ireland have continued to produce that for us. We’ve been very pleased with the calibre and capability of people in excess of three years we’ve been there.”

The Irish operation is linked closely to Cisco’s US base in Silicon Valley. “Products were once developed country by country but you can’t do that now, you have to develop globally,” said Mr Dedicoat.