45126-Invest. Qual-No111

Competitiveness, Continuous Improvement and Learningmay be R&D expenditure per employee. Ó Riain presents data onthis measure by sector for Irish and foreign-owned enterprises.There are noticeable differences between sectors in the level ofR&D expenditure per employee. In two of the ‘high-tech’ sectors,R&D expenditure per employee in foreign-owned enterprises isdistinctly low (€1794 per employee in software and €1406 peremployee in instruments). These data are well below the correspondingfigures for Irish-owned firms in these sectors (€5521 forsoftware and €4343 for instruments). However, in other ‘high-tech’sectors the data show R&D expenditure per employee in foreignownedfirms that is similar to the corresponding figures for Irishownedfirms. Ó Riain characterises this pattern as the ‘boom withinthe bubble’ of foreign investment.LinkagesExpenditure by foreign-owned enterprises on good and services inthe Irish economy has shown rapid growth. In 1999, foreign ownedenterprises spent over €10 billion on good and services in the Irisheconomy, more than double the level of real expenditure in 1994.By 1999, the level of expenditure by foreign-owned enterprises inmanufacturing and tradable services was 30 per cent higher than thecorresponding figure for Irish-owned firms, although relative tosales, spending by Irish-owned enterprises was higher.Recent TrendsWhile there is an ongoing process of job losses from the existingstock of FDI, 2001 was the first time in 15 years that job losesexceeded job gains among IDA-Ireland companies. There were17,535 job loses in IDA companies in 2001, while there were jobgains of 13,100. The net decline in employment was approximately4,000 or 2.8 per cent. Job loses were concentrated in theelectronics/engineering sector, reflecting the global ICT downturn.Recently announced figures by the IDA for 2002, show a further netdecline of approximately 3,000, or 2.2 per cent. There were 11,713jobs created by IDA supported companies in 2002 and 14,754 joblosses. 2 There are currently 133,084 persons employed by 1,0982. It should be noted that these figures, taken from the Forfás employment surveyare preliminary in nature.543