Ireland has been a great place for Microsoft and the corporation will continue to invest and grow here, Mr Bill Gates, chairman and chief executive said yesterday.Speaking at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting Mr Gates also dismissed the impact of the US Department of Justice's anti-trust case saying it would make no difference to the company.Speaking about Microsoft's operations in Ireland, where 940 people are employed, he said: "The jobs we account for directly and indirectly in Ireland will continue to go up." He added that recent job losses - 73 people are to be made redundant at the company's headquarters in Sandyford - were the result of a shift from physical product to licensing product.Mr Gates also spoke strongly about the anti-trust case which Microsoft has been facing in the US."It is not something that is going to fundamentally change what Microsoft does," Mr Gates said.Microsoft can still go ahead and add a lot of features to its software, he said."I would not worry for shareholders and I am confident we will get our point across. I do not see anything that will hold us back."He added that Microsoft is the most admired company in the US, according to Fortune magazine.

"The biggest problem is that we have not done a good job communicating what the Department of Justice problem is. There is no way it will change the public's view of Microsoft."We are a very successful company and it is typical of a successful company to be tracked closely. There is nothing in this that will change what we do."The US Justice Department has charged that Microsoft violated a 1995 consent decree forbidding the company from forcing computer makers that licence windows software to use other Microsoft products as well as including its Internet Explorer web browser.Microsoft, which has asked an appeals court to throw out all Justice Department charges, agreed last month to settle part of the case by allowing its Windows 95 operating system to be shipped without the Explorer icon.But Mr Larry Ellison launched a bitter attack on Microsoft.According to the chairman and chief executive of Oracle, Microsoft's only innovation on the internet is to attack innovators."Netscape made the internet accessible to the world and Microsoft innovated nothing. It simply copied Netscape gave it away for free and forced it on everyone by placing it in their operating system.""For Microsoft, the most powerful corporation in history, to try and drive a small innovator out of business is outrageous," he added, speaking at a different seminar to Mr Gates. "Why do they not give free magazines, or free food as you have to eat while computing, or free desks and chairs as you have to sit. It is simply that preposterous that every piece of software should be part of Windows."Oracle and Microsoft have only just begun to compete and it is a little too early to say which version will work best, Microsoft's TV or the Oracle network computer. But according to Mr Ellison it is "daunting when your main competitor is the most important corporation on earth".However, he added, one thing is certain it is inconceivable that networks could be dominated by one company, one country or one person."We will be either moving into the information age or the age of Microsoft and I believe it will be the information age which cannot be dominated by an individual," he added.Mr Ellison also insisted that the world will move to network computing. "It is based on quality of service and cost rather than being controlled by a monopoly."He added that Oracle's entire production run of low cost network computers had sold out. "Network computer sales will outnumber PC sales by 10 to one by the year 2010," he predicted.