The 4,400 staff at Intel's manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare stand to receive half year bonuses equivalent to 16 days pay after the announcement of record second quarter figures by the world's largest maker of computer chips. Intel last night announced that its revenues for the three months to June were $8.3 billion (£7 billion), up 23 per cent on the same period last year and an increase of three per cent on the previous three months.

The company made a profit of $3.5 billion during the period before the costs of acquisitions made during the quarter are taken into account. A spokesman for Intel in Dublin said last night that based on the company's performance to date it would be paying a higher bonus to its staff this year. Intel distributes 4 per cent of net income to employees each year in the form a bonus. The spokesman said that based on income earned to date it would be paying staff an average of 16 days extra pay for the first six months.

The news will give a boost to Intel's plans to recruit an addition 1,000 staff over the next 15 months. Last month the company announced that it plans to spend $2 billion in Ireland building a new semi-conductor manufacturing plant at its Leixlip campus.

When acquisitions are taken into account second quarter profits were $3.1 billion. Earnings per share were $0.45, up 80 per cent from $0.25 in the second quarter of 1999 and up 15 percent sequentially. Intel announced a two for one share split earlier this month and the earnings figure is quoted on a split sharebasis.

"We are very pleased with our record quarterly results in what is normally a seasonally slow quarter," said Mr Craig Barrett, president and chief executive officer. "Strong worldwide PC and server demand and better than expected manufacturing performance helped lead the company to greater than 20 per cent revenue growth versus the second quarter of last year," he said.