Dundalk has solidified its reputation as a centre of e-commerce with yesterday’s announcement by eBay that it will be creating 450 jobs there – last year PayPal announced 1,000 jobs for the Co Louth town.
“I have plans made to emigrate to England in June, but I will be applying now for one of these jobs,” said Robert Quinn (30), from Ardee, a short drive from Dundalk.
Robert is father of a one-year-old boy and speaks French and Spanish. He is currently studying an international business course that involved learning Chinese.
“I worked in Navan carpets for three years and it closed and then I worked as a fork-lift driver.
“I went back to full-time education and studied cultural studies with Spanish because I thought I had more potential than just driving a forklift,” he said.
He welcomed the eBay announcement, although he said he has already applied for a job with PayPal, a cousin of eBay, without success. His plans for England remain in place for the time being at least.
On the course with him in Dundalk Institute of Technology is Tomas Wilkinson (30), who is approaching the first anniversary of being made redundant by Telefónica O2 Ireland.
He used to leave home at 5am to travel from Clogherhead to Dublin in time for work. If he does not get a job he will also be emigrating and he was greatly buoyed by yesterday’s news.
“It is brilliant news. I have been applying for jobs throughout my course, which appealed to me because it is based around the emerging markets in the world. I also thought an understanding of the Chinese language and culture would be an advantage in securing employment.”
