Paypal - Limerick or Dundalk

GLOBAL ONLINE payments giant PayPal is the firm behind the plan to create around 1,000 jobs in either Dundalk or Limerick.

The company is assessing available office buildings in both centres before deciding where to locate the new enterprise.

PayPal has ruled out the former Quinn Direct office block in Navan because of the absence of a large skilled workforce in the town and its proximity to Blanchardstown where the company and its parent eBay already employ around 1,600 people.

PayPal is the global leader in online payment solutions. It was founded in 1998 and has 123 million customers in 103 markets worldwide.

Its Blanchardstown office, which serves as the European headquarters, will not be affected by the opening of a further office in either Dundalk or Limerick. The company has several options for buildings in both centres. The final decision is expected to be determined by the availability of a skilled workforce to roll out the new operation.

The buildings being considered in Limerick include the former Dell plant at Raheen which once housed 1,900 workers.

Politicians from all parties are continuing to canvass for the PayPal call centre to be located in their constituencies. Though Limerick has been designated a priority region for investment, the IDA has only managed to secure 300 new jobs for the area over the past year.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard is shortly to decide whether to locate a new office block of 9,290sq m (100,000sq ft) on part of its site at Ballybrit in Galway or on the opposite side of the racecourse in the IDA park at Parkmore where two other software companies, SAP and Fidelity, are also based.

HP plans to lease the building from one of a number of developers pitching to design and build it. The American company has designated its Galway software centre as a global centre of competency for cloud computing. Its property adviser is Paddy Conlon of CBRE