 |
The Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr John Hegarty (left) presents Chris Horn of IONA Technologies with the TCD Innovation Award in September 2006. IONA Technologies was founded in the IDA-backed TCD Innovation Centre, by three former TCD lecturers from the Department of Computer Science. |
Three publicly traded Irish tech companies have recently reported losses at a time of strong global economic growth.
The official target to achieve the status of a world-class knowledge economy is 2013.
Last month, IONA reported a net loss of $1.2 million in its second quarter; Trintech reported on Wednesday, Aug 22, a net loss for the second quarter of $1.0 million and today, Datalex reported a net loss of $0.9 million in H1 2007 compared with a profit of $1.6m in 2006.
Also today, under a headline: Irish tech firms take on Asia-Pacific - the Irish Examiner reports that Irish IT firms (not clear what proportion relates to Irish-owned firms as distinct from units of multinational firms, based in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland does not have a breakdown of exorts to Asia-Pacific by type of firm) already do business worth €185 million with Australia’s software industry. Australia has a highly- developed financial services sector and Enterprise Ireland is targeting it as a key gateway to the Asian-Pacific markets.
Several Irish firms are taking part in a series of networking events in Australia, beginning with a showcase seminar in Sydney today.
The Examiner says: Ireland is now in the world’s top three producers and exporters of software and 800 firms generate more than €12 billion in export revenue for the economy.
Impressive stuff to many readers I would suspect but it is more than misleading as 90- 95% of the quoted figure relates to exports made by foreign-owned firms based in Ireland.
I ask again, how can Irish-owned firms be helped by claiming the likes of Microsoft as an Irish tech firm?
RELATED
Irish Trade Statistics: Policymakers opt for Spin and Delusion rather than confront challenging facts
