|
|
Burnfoot company still growing...
19.05.09
A SUCCESSFUL Inishowen
company boss who has won contracts for Wembley
Stadium and the Aviva Stadium at Landsdowne Road has
hit out at the level of dole payments in the
Republic compared to the North.
E&I Engineering Ltd., managing director Philip
O'Doherty said the €208 received weekly by
unemployed single people in the South compared to
the £45 received by their counterparts in the North,
was seriously hampering competitiveness -
particularly for border counties like Donegal.
However, Mr O'Doherty's Burnfoot-based company
appears to be bucking the recessionary trend and is
still recruiting.
It exports to Britain and Europe and has grown its
workforce a staggering five-fold in four years -
from 60 in 2005 to 310 today. Mr O'Doherty said one
of the main driving forces behind his business was
its concentration on ongoing research and
development (R&D). Speaking during a panel
discussion at the 4Business Expo in Letterkenny on
Thursday, he said: "Of the 310 people we employ,
around 10% of them are mechanical or electrical
engineers and 50% of those are involved in R&D." |
However, he also blamed
Ireland's minimum wage for hampering
competitiveness.
"The minimum wage of €8.65 is too high and it pushes
up the cost of wages for workers such as electrical
fitters etc. But we are very efficient and we
automate where we can," he added. Mr O'Doherty also
revealed how he was forced |
 |
to offer in the region
of €100,000 to recruit an accountant because the
person was offered a similar wage in the public
sector. He said high public sector wages combined
with high dole payments and the current minimum wage
were "out of kilter" with what was needed for
companies, particularly along the border, to thrive.
E&I has secured the contract to supply MV & LV
switchgear and lighting control systems for the
Aviva Stadium in Landsdowne Road. It also supplied
and delivered packaged sub-stations, main/sub main
switchgear and busbar trunking to Wembley Stadium in
London. Meanwhile, also on the panel were Donegal
News editor Columba Gill; Sinn Féin Cllr Padraig
MacLochlainn; Donegal Enterprise Board assistant CEO
Ursula Donnelly, finance expert Eddie Hobbs and Fine
Gael Deputy Joe McHugh. The discussion and Q&A
session was chaired by 4Business Magazine editor Pat
McArt. Meanwhile, Mr Hobbs told the audience that
the cost of doing business in Ireland had risen so
sharply during the boom years, he once deduced that
a Dublin coffee shop owner, who had consulted him,
would have to sell coffee at €8 a cup to make a
profit.
Cllr MacLochlainn said Ireland had been turned into
"one huge casino" during the Celtic tiger years
while Deputy McHugh told the audience that Ireland
was home to a "bureaucratic monster" that had to be
fed every day. He said there were four civil
servants for every one farmer and he said the
challenge was to get rid of "fat Government and
create lean Government". |
|
