Base metal mining in the Irish Republic

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Uneven development and capitalist peripheralisation: the case of Ireland

Spatial unevenness has been a consistent feature of capitalist development since its original rise to prominence in early modern Britain. This is not to say that uneven development is an exclusively capitalist phenomenon (nor, for that matter, that .it is a necessary feature of capitalism - a question that will be discussed in the conclusion to this paper). Clearly, differences in levels of technology and geographical variation in natural resource endowments can give rise to variable levels of development, regardless of economic system - although geographers, and other social scientists, may have been inclined to ·overstress these factors, thereby providing an ideological smoi<escreen for more fundamental processes of uneven development under capitalism (Smith, 1984: 100). Certainly, nowadays, the distribution of natural resources has, at best, only a minor influence on the overall geography of capitalist investment and employment creation

International Oil Companies: Some Considerations for the Development of Ireland's Hydrocarbon Resources

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the implications of the development of Irish hydrocarbon resources by international oil companies. A number of introductory observations, however, are necessary in order to set this examination in context. Hydrocarbons, of which the most economically important are oil and natural gas, are formed by the crushing of organic material under masses of sediment carried onto continental shelves or inland seas by rivers emanating from adjoining landmasses. We can infer, therefore, that hydrocarbons will be found to some degree in any part of the world where accumulations of sediment are present. Many such accumulations now form dry land, it should be noted, due to move ments in the earth's crust. The distribution of oil and gas production is a function principally of the degree of accumulation of oil/gas into pools or reservoirs, the size of these reservoirs, and the cost of extraction. Cost here includes local taxation levels, risk factors, and transport costs, as well as direct extraction costs. Offshore extraction costs are of course much greater than those on dry land, so that off shore production on a wide scale was not feasible until the major price increases of 1973

Regional governance and regional development: Implications of the Action Programme for Effective Local Government

Since the 1980s, regional development policy in advanced economies has emphasised the promotion of endogenous development potentials within regions, with local/regional government playing a leading role in the creation of effective governance structures for mobilising these potentials. A key feature of this approach is the adoption of the city-region" as the organising unit for pursuing local/regional development. Ireland has not followed this lead, continuing to rely on external investment as the main engine of economic growth and failing to devolve highly centralised functions which could give local/regional government a more effective developmental role. This article argues that the 2012 Action Programme for Effective Local Government proposes a regional structure which is meaningless in terms of city-region development and fails to address the governance weaknesses which inhibit development at the regional and local levels. The action programme therefore ignores international best practice regarding how effective regional development should be pursued

The Services Sector

The term ‘services’ refers to a disparate group of occupations which, together, comprise the so-called ‘tertiary’ sector of economic activity. What distinguishes service activities from those in the primary (extraction of resource from the natural environment) and secondary (transformation of natural resources into usable products) sectors is that they are not directly involved in the production of material goods. The European Union’s General Industrial Classifi cation of Economic Activities (generally known as the NACE classifi cation), as adapted by Ireland’s Central Statistics Offi ce, subdivides services into nine broad categories: wholesale and retail trade; hotels and restaurants; transport, storage and communications; banking and fi nancial services; real estate, renting and business activities; education; health and social work; and a residual ‘other services’ category. Other, more conceptual classifi cations distinguish, on the one hand, between consumer services (provided to the general public) and producer services (provided to businesses) and, on the other, between ‘physical’ services (e.g., transport, retailing, restaurants) and ‘informational’ services (e.g., administration, research, education, audiovisual entertainment). Indeed, so important have information-related activities become in modern advanced economies that it has been suggested that they should be allocated to a separate ‘quaternary’ sector of economic activity (Gottmann, 1961)

Spatial Trends in Employment in Foreign Firms in Ireland

In a country with a small domestic market such as Ireland’s, the development of exports is the key to achieving high living standards. The Irish government has relied principally on inward investment by foreign firms as the principal means of achieving this since the late 1950s. Generous capital grants, tax incentives and the availability of suitable labour have been the principal means employed to attract inward investment. This policy met with increasing success through the 1960s followed by a surge of investment following Ireland’s accession to what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, as this meant that foreign firms could use Ireland as a low-cost base for serving the large EEC market. This was followed by a slowdown during most of the recessionary 1980s, during which many of the plants established in the previous two decades contracted or closed. However, things picked up again in the late 1980s and, following a brief dip in the early 1990s, a further surge of inward investment commenced in 1993 which underpinned the “Celtic Tiger” phenomenon and saw employment in foreign firms increase by two thirds (to 164,000) by 2000. The great bulk of this new investment came from the USA which by 2000 accounted for two thirds of all employment in foreign firms operating in Ireland. In the period 2000-2010, while the reported exports of foreign firms based in Ireland continued to grow strongly (by 56% in current prices), there was a sharp fall (of 22%) in employment. Furthermore, the spin-off effects of foreign firms also contracted: expenditure by foreign firms on wages/salaries, materials and services fell by 18% (in current terms) over the period. This apparent conflict between trends in exports, on the one hand, and employment and local expenditures, on the other, is an indication of the extent to which the Irish output data for foreign firms are being distorted by transfer price manipulation on the part of the firms in question in order to exploit Ireland’s tax advantages. Over the last thirty years the IDA became increasingly selective in the types of investment it sought to attract to Ireland, focusing on sectors with long-term growth prospects for which an Irish location was suitable. In manufacturing, the main concentrations in the 1990s were in electronics (mainly office and computing machinery) and chemicals/pharmaceuticals. However, a more significant development was the rapid rise in investment in services activities capable of using information technology for conducting international transactions, especially software/computer services, financial services (whose growth primarily emanated from the establishment of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin in 1987) and business services (especially back-office activities). By 2000, employment in foreign-owned services operations amounted to 46,000, 28% of all foreign-firm employment. In the 2000s the electronics sector was heavily affected by, firstly, the dot.com crash in the early part of the decade and, secondly, by the emergence of China as a major global competitor in this sector. Foreign employment in the sector fell by one half between 2000-2010. Non-electronics manufacturing employment fell by 25%, but losses in chemicals/pharmaceuticals were at a much lower level (8%) while the medical devices sector did well over the decade. Employment in international services actually increased marginally over the period, so that its share of total employment in foreign firms rose to 36

Spatial Trends in Employment in Foreign Firms in Ireland

In a country with a small domestic market such as Ireland’s, the development of exports is the key to achieving high living standards. The Irish government has relied principally on inward investment by foreign firms as the principal means of achieving this since the late 1950s. Generous capital grants, tax incentives and the availability of suitable labour have been the principal means employed to attract inward investment. This policy met with increasing success through the 1960s followed by a surge of investment following Ireland’s accession to what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, as this meant that foreign firms could use Ireland as a low-cost base for serving the large EEC market. This was followed by a slowdown during most of the recessionary 1980s, during which many of the plants established in the previous two decades contracted or closed. However, things picked up again in the late 1980s and, following a brief dip in the early 1990s, a further surge of inward investment commenced in 1993 which underpinned the “Celtic Tiger” phenomenon and saw employment in foreign firms increase by two thirds (to 164,000) by 2000. The great bulk of this new investment came from the USA which by 2000 accounted for two thirds of all employment in foreign firms operating in Ireland. In the period 2000-2010, while the reported exports of foreign firms based in Ireland continued to grow strongly (by 56% in current prices), there was a sharp fall (of 22%) in employment. Furthermore, the spin-off effects of foreign firms also contracted: expenditure by foreign firms on wages/salaries, materials and services fell by 18% (in current terms) over the period. This apparent conflict between trends in exports, on the one hand, and employment and local expenditures, on the other, is an indication of the extent to which the Irish output data for foreign firms are being distorted by transfer price manipulation on the part of the firms in question in order to exploit Ireland’s tax advantages. Over the last thirty years the IDA became increasingly selective in the types of investment it sought to attract to Ireland, focusing on sectors with long-term growth prospects for which an Irish location was suitable. In manufacturing, the main concentrations in the 1990s were in electronics (mainly office and computing machinery) and chemicals/pharmaceuticals. However, a more significant development was the rapid rise in investment in services activities capable of using information technology for conducting international transactions, especially software/computer services, financial services (whose growth primarily emanated from the establishment of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin in 1987) and business services (especially back-office activities). By 2000, employment in foreign-owned services operations amounted to 46,000, 28% of all foreign-firm employment. In the 2000s the electronics sector was heavily affected by, firstly, the dot.com crash in the early part of the decade and, secondly, by the emergence of China as a major global competitor in this sector. Foreign employment in the sector fell by one half between 2000-2010. Non-electronics manufacturing employment fell by 25%, but losses in chemicals/pharmaceuticals were at a much lower level (8%) while the medical devices sector did well over the decade. Employment in international services actually increased marginally over the period, so that its share of total employment in foreign firms rose to 36

Globalisation, information technology and the emergence of niche transnational cities: the growth of the call centre sector in Dublin

The development of information and communications technologies (ICT) has facilitated the emergence of a complex global urban system in which many formerly lower-order cities have been carving out 'niche' specialist functions serving urban fields of transnational dimension. This is illustrated in the case of Dublin, which in recent years has been transcending its traditional role as Ireland's national metropolis through the development of a range of functions servicing mainly European markets. One such function comprises pan-European telephone call centre operations. The development and characteristics of this newly-emerging sector are described. It is argued that the growth of the sector confirms Dublin's - and Ireland's - dependent position in the international division of labour, and that its long-term sustainability is open to question

Information Technology, Gender Segmentation and the Relocation of Back Office Employment: The Growth of the Teleservices Sector in Ireland

The movement of routine back office activities from the central business districts of metropolitan regions in advanced economies to remote locations is leading to a distinctive global division of labour in office employment. While facilitated by the development of information and communication technologies, this process of relocation is primarily driven by the desire to reduce operating costs, mainly by moving to sources of cheap female workers. This reflects a classic gender segmentation process in patriarchal societies whereby back office work is mainly done by women and, accordingly, involves relatively low levels of remuneration. This provides direct parallels with the offshoring of routine manufacturing work associated with the new international division of labour. Ireland has been to the forefront in acting as a host for internationally-mobile routine office work, initially involving mainly data processing and, more recently, teleservices. As elsewhere, teleservices employment in Ireland is characterized by a combination of female predominance, low pay, difficult working conditions and high turnover rates. However, the Irish teleservices sector is unusual in its foreign language requirement, the high education levels of workers and its concentration in a prosperous metropolitan location. The resultant labour shortages, combined with growing use of Internet-based business-to-consumer transactions, are likely to place the sustainability of the sector under increasing pressure. Plans to upgrade the types of back office functions being located in Ireland may pose further challenges for women workers due to male dominance of the higher-level jobs involved

Women’s Employment and Peripheralisation: the Case of Ireland’s Branch Plant Economy

The mobilisation of reserves of unskilled women workers played a key role in the new international division of labour which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. This is illustrated in the case of the branch plant economy which emerged in the Republic of Ireland after 1960. There has been rapid growth in female employment in the electrical engineering sector which is dominated by foreign firms. A case study of the electronics industry reveals strong gender segmentation and a heavy reliance on assembly work carried out mostly by women. High levels of trade union membership have had little impact on the inferior status of women in this industry. Dominance by foreign firms has created very limited employment opportunities for women at local level. The automation of assembly work, allied to plans to upgrade the status of branch plant activities in Ireland, will further restrict women’s employment prospects