The IDA paid some £129.3 million (€164.18 million) in grants to about 260 firms last year. With some 124,664 people employed in companies supported by the State body, the average cost per job sustained in 1999 was £10,260. About half of these workers are employed in the electronics and engineering sectors.

While 24 firms received grants of more than £1 million, by far the largest payment was made to the US multi-national IBM, which received grants worth just more than £21.5 million to establish a software and technical services campus at Mulhuddart in north Dublin. The company received a further £578,453 to develop a customer services centre at Blanchardstown, west Dublin.

But while total grants paid to IBM have now reached £63.7 million, the largest beneficiary of IDA payments has been the computer chip maker Intel, which has received about £110 million to date. This does not include grants for Intel's £2 billion investment at its Leixlip plant.

Overall, the IDA secured 186 new projects last year - 96 were in the regulated financial services sector and 90 were in the manufacturing and international services business.

Among the major grant beneficiaries were copier-maker Xerox, which received £6 million to develop a shared-services centre at Blanchardstown, and US bank Citibank, which received £4.47 million for its Dublin-based software and credit card processing centre. Medical devices firm Boston Scientfic received about £5.5 million to develop plants in Cork and Galway.