THE chances of replacing the Packard factory in Tallaght are "relatively high", according to IDA Ireland. The key is what Packard management decides to do with the site, it said.
"If the company makes it available under special terms we will have the best possible deal in terms of immediate marketing," a spokesman said. "However, if they put it to commercial auction it will be a different ball game.
But the authority is fairly confident it will be able to do a deal with Packard. "They have had significant benefits from Ireland over the last 21 years and are under a moral obligation to do what they can."
He added that the £2 million Packard owed the authority under legal obligations was negotiable" if a better package could be arrived at which would provide new jobs.
A spokesman for Packard insisted the company would fulfil its legal and moral obligations.
However, any new operation is unlikely to employ the 800 people who will be joining 7,000 others from the area on the dole queues at the end of July.
The IDA expects a "mix of industries" to replace Packard. A telephone based service operation is the most likely large employer, according to a spokesman, who hopes employment in this sector will double from 2,000 over three years.
But most of these jobs are for multilingual staff who answer calls from all over Europe. The 480 women and 320 men who were employed by Packard are unlikely to have those skills.
This has been the recent pattern. The IDA persuaded three companies to set up in the west Dublin region in the last year, creating 1,500 jobs. The biggest was United Parcel Service which will provide up to 1,000 new jobs, mostly for multilingual staff.
Xilinx, a high tech company which produces specialised integrated circuits for electronics, will employ up to 300 people while a software company, Saturn Solutions, plans to take on 250 staff. But only GEA, an engineering company specialising in machinery for the food industry and employing 100 people, is employing workers with skills similar to those at Packard.
"Services is our main target, with high tech and software companies following closely behind," the IDA spokesman said.
"We expect a slowdown in the software sector, although we are still bringing in one high tech every two weeks. But we will get around 50 new projects this year, creating 11,500 jobs.
However, he insisted Tallaght was an "excellent location". The chances of getting industry depended on competitiveness and infrastructure. At the end of July there would be a large empty building in an excellent location.
He stressed that Tallaght's infrastructure was a major selling point. "The new motorway links, one hotel opened and another on the way, as well as a complete business infrastructure have made all the difference."
But the IDA's other selling point, that Tallaght is a town of 80,000 people with a complete cross section of the population, is likely to prove cold comfort to Packard employees.