Automation will replace factory jobs, says EI
Factory-floor jobs will be a thing of the past because Irish firms will have to embrace automation to survive, it was claimed today.
Enterprise Ireland (EI) warned that Ireland’s expensive cost-base would continue to lose semi-skilled employment to cheaper economies like Eastern Europe and China.
Manufacturing now needed to become automated and not assembly-based, EI chief executive officer Frank Ryan today told the Oireachtas Enterprise & Small Business Committee.
“Manufacturing going forward will either be automated or semi-automated and will not be assembly-based manufacturing,” he said.
“This is because of the efficiencies and cost-savings that can be gained through automation.”
Mr Ryan said that declining manufacturing was a major concern to Enterprise Ireland.
But he added: “Manufacturing remains a key feature in every developed economy in the world like Germany, the US and Japan. There’s no reason it shouldn’t continue to be a key feature of Ireland’s economic engine.”
Committee member and Fine Gael TD Brendan Howlin said he was concerned about the decline in manufacturing jobs and noted that his own constituency was dependent on the cyclical construction industry.
Mr Ryan replied: “We are in an era now, because of our cost base, that all Irish companies will not produce their entire product ranges in Ireland. Some of that is going to be based overseas.”
The EI, which employs 130 staff in 33 overseas offices, said the trade mission to China in January was the biggest ever and yielded over €125m in signed contracts.
The strongest growth in percentage terms during 2004 was in the software sector which helped to boost overall exports by 5.6%.
EI is also funding enterprise “incubator units” in every Institute of Technology colleges around the country.
