"The era of the 1,000-job project is dead," said one IDA Ireland executive a decade ago. Reminded of his words now, and that this year alone there have been five such announcements, his face shows delight rather than embarrassment.

But the record level of investment now provokes worrying questions: how long can we keep this up? Will the jobs' bubble burst? Are all our eggs in one basket?

In 1987, with even then a sophisticated industrial development grant structure in place, the overseas and domestic branch of the IDA helped generate 11,500 new jobs. By the end of this year, IDA Ireland and Forbairt will have announced 25,000 jobs between them.

It seems everything has suddenly come right for a small country on the edge of Europe. The education policies put in place 25 years ago, the relentless targeting of key US companies, the social partnership approach to government are all paying huge dividends.

Every one of the Fortune top 10 pharmaceutical companies operate out of Ireland. Of the top 20 electronics companies, 12 have plants here.

This year again, our development agency has beaten every one of its European rivals; a State with a population of less than 4 million snatched one-third of all US electronics investment in the 350 million population of the European Union, 40 per cent of teleservices investment, 45 per cent of software investment and 75 per cent of all medical devices investment.

But while no one will say so publicly, the Republic has almost reached full employment. Full employment, that is, for those with skills. In software, Ireland has already caught up with the rest of the world. When IBM said earlier this year that it would hire another 6,500 software people around the world, if it could find them, Irish companies were already complaining that the shortage of programers was hampering growth.

Even with thousands of emigrants returning each year to take up jobs, and the influx of women - statistically invisible in the home up to now - to the market place, other areas are not far behind.

The Government this month started its campaign in earnest, promising to spend £250 million extra on education and training, and suggesting strongly that if industry knew what was good for it, private companies would match these funds. The IDA, which was worried that it had made promises about the Irish labour market that it couldn't keep, believes this is the smartest move government has made in a decade.

The agency also argues that the Republic's eggs are not in one basket. Its main targets are electronics, telesales and healthcare, but within these wide sectors, the IDA is backing several horses at one time.

In electronics, for example, the areas concentrated on are: computers and networking; computer systems; sub-contract component manufacture; multi-media; semi-conductors; software; and telecommunications.

Electronics is here to stay, the theory goes, and computers will become more and more a part of our lives. Within the industry, of course, technologies will rise and fall. For example, doubt now hangs over the plan announced by Seagate in June to create an extra 1,000 jobs in Cork. The project has been postponed for six months.

Eastman Kodak said in January it would create 360 jobs here but its plans are being reviewed as part of a global restructuring.

Across the board, however, if the spread is wide enough, as one company lays off workers or fails, another will expand.

And while many areas within the healthcare sector are consolidating, such as pharmaceuticals, the IDA has focused heavily on a booming area, medical devices. Because it is being driven by technological developments, and because people will always get sick, the agency sees this business as more "future-proof" than most.

The call-centre business has also been driven by technological advance - it is now possible to carry out many administrative functions from anywhere in the world. What most multinational companies need, particularly in terms of customer service, is a flexible, educated workforce which speaks fluent English and perhaps some other languages.

And while there is a greater chance of these companies leaving for lower-wage economies when the grant aid runs out, Ireland is likely to remain an attractive location for many.

The Republic is also unlikely to run out of people. The population is set to rise until 2005, then remain steady until at least 2020.

Despite all of this relatively reassuring news, those monitoring the State's industrial development are unhappy with one aspect of how things are going.

"If you draw a line across the country from Dublin to Galway, the people above that line, that whole part of our population, are not getting a ride on the Celtic Tiger at all," one executive says.

In 1998, he says, the IDA will redouble its efforts, offering companies which will invest above that line grants of at least 25 per cent more than for going to Dublin.

To this end, the agency has spent enormous resources in time and money over the past six months re-designing and building the industrial land bank in towns north of the line. There has been much work in Sligo, Athlone, Castlebar, Navan, Athlone, for example, while Ballina, Cavan, Drogheda and Dundalk have also been targeted.

They are now waiting for their share of the economic and employment boom.