The decline of the computer hardware sector: how Ireland adjusted

Abstract

By the late 1990s Ireland had become one of the major European centres of computer hardware production, accounting for 5 per cent of global computer exports and about one-third of all personal computers sold in Europe. Ireland at this stage also accounted for around 6 per cent of global exports of electronic components. The sector has experienced a sharp decline since then as production has relocated eastwards to China and to Central and Eastern Europe. About one-third of the jobs in the sector were lost between 2000 and 2004. This paper charts the history of the sector in Ireland and analyses the process of employment adjustment as the sector declined.