INTEL HAS chosen its Leixlip campus as one of two new European RD hubs in a move that could lead to new jobs and investment in the future.
The US firm, which employs 5,000 in Ireland, said yesterday it would set up the two “Open Labs” in Leixlip and Munich as part of a new initiative to co-ordinate the work of 800 Intel researchers at different sites in Europe. They will focus on research that aims to improve the performance of microprocessors and computing devices they power.
At the launch of the Intel Labs initiative in Brussels, company chairman Craig Barrett said he was “very exited” by the potential of Intel’s Irish research teams. He also downplayed the prospects of job losses at Intel’s Leixlip facility, saying the future is still “bright”.
“We recently announced some factory restructuring and it didn’t include Ireland . . . so there is no immediate danger of job cuts in Ireland, but no one can predict the future. This is one of the worst recessions we have ever seen. So we will take it day by day,” he said.
Mr Barrett declined to comment on fears US companies may pull out of Ireland if there is a second No vote on the Lisbon Treaty, saying this was a decision “for EU citizens”.
But Martin Curley, director of Intel Labs Europe, said Ireland was too small to have a “go it alone” strategy with regard to the EU and the treaty.
“We have the opportunity to be an equal player in Europe . . . it is critically important that we embrace that. We only have to look at Iceland and look at the consequences of being outside European networks,” said Mr Curley, who noted that Irish membership of the Union was a critical factor for Intel when setting up back in 1989.
“One of the drivers was the idea of fortress Europe and import tariffs that would be placed on US and other foreign companies that would be importing products into Europe,” he said.
