Computers - September 1984

Whatever the Government White Paper on Industry offers local industry in terms of grants and tax concessions, the prevailing public image of high technology companies is one of multinational companies which will continue to use this country as an assembly line until such time as it is unprofitable to do so.

The basis of this argument is that the employment and wealth created by large companies setting up in Ireland are falseties as far as real industrial development is concerned. Foreign companies will use Ireland as a producction base, obtaining large Government assistance and giving jobs to the young, skilled workforce, but returning little by way of re-investing profits in areas of visible long-term benefit such as Research & Development.

Not surprisingly, this line of arguument incurs the disgust of the said hi-tech companies who have invested here. One such company is Wang whose Irish operation presently emmploys around 700 people. The bulk of these work at the Wang Laboratories manufacturing plant in Limerick where the Managing Director is 32 year old Corkman Eoin O'Driscoll.

According to O'Driscoll, the switchhing of Government investment funds from foreign companies to Irish indiividuals or collectives will do nothing for the country if products and marrkets for those products don't exist. "Government assistance should always be given to good industrial ideas, parrticularly in electronics, but grants should follow enterprise and innovaation - not the other way around as some would wish."

On the 'assembly line' accusation, O'Driscoll comments "People talk about Wang as just an assembly operaation. Yes we assemble computers here, but that is a highly skilled job. We (in Ireland) tend to place emphasis on the application of energy when really the application of knowledge is far more important nowadays."

Pointing to the shift from manuufacturing to services in industry in general, O'Driscoll says that the heavy service aspect of Wang's Irish operation means that employees are becoming highly skilled and experienced in commplex technological areas. He is agggrieved that not enough credit is given to the high servicing contact.

But, if Ireland is ever to benefit from the technological boom, then Irish companies, formed and run by Irish individuals, must design, manufacture and produce for both the home and export markets. Can this ever corne about and, if so, how?

"Every Irish computer company, whether involved in hardware or softtware production is going to have to export. The design and manufacturing talent is already here, but the experrience of international marketing isn't. Indigenous industry should use the multinationals to enter the export market without running up the very high costs involved in physically marrketing a product abroad. Irish commpanies should use the export market on their doorstep to better advantage than at present."

One supplier of equipment to Wang is Interpro Ltd, run by the Sugrue brothers Denis and Owen. Having heard that Wang were experiencing pro blems with power supply testing, they developed a prototype which was acceptable to the US company.

Interpro then enlisted the assistance of a group of venture capitalists and now they will probably end up supplyying the Wang corporation worldwide with their Power Supply Tester.

Another operation for which Eoin O'Driscoll has high regard is the National Microelectronics Applications Centre (MAC) which is located beside Wang in Limerick's Plassey Technoloogical Park. Very recently MAC estabblished a new subsidiary company, Automated Circuit Layouts Ltd, which is the first computer aided design (CAD) bureau for printed cirrcuit boards. Initial investment in Automated Circuit Layouts runs to £100,000.

This year, the Irish electronics industry will use around £24 million worth of printed circuit boards. At the moment, most of these are either manually designed or sent abroad for CAD. Very few companies here have the necessary facilities in-house. ACL estimate a potential market for themmselves of £ 1 million in the first year of operation with a projected annual growth rate of 30%.

Almost all electronic products conntain at least one printed circuit boards, but the design of these is a complex and intricate process. CAD greatly aids the accuracy and efficiency with which they can be produced. Most of the expertise for the new venture has been sought from the British marrket leader in this area, P.T. Barclay and Partners. However, MAC will retain full equity for the company.