THE growth of the IBM operation in Ireland has been good for Triona Nic Lughadha and her young family.
Triona, a software developer, works for IBM's insurance solutions unit, producing customised software for individual customers in the insurance sector.
Her husband, John Dwyer, is also a software developer and also works for IBM. He's working on the company's Year 2000 project, which involves preparing software for the transition to the millennium. The couple have two young children.
"I'm very lucky to have such a wonderful job here in Ireland," she says. "The work I'm doing is very much state of the art and the whole thing is a great experience."
The IBM software operation in Ireland has expanded steadily in recent years and many people Triona knew from university are now working in Dublin for the multinational.
The company has a policy of paying its staff competitive rates and creating incentives to encourage them not to leave to work for competitor firms.
After completing her second level schooling in Manor House school, Raheny, Dublin, in 1982, she got a job in the civil service with the Revenue Commissioners.
"I thought I'd work for a year and get some money before going to college. Then I heard about night school and I thought I'd go to university and work at the same time."
She enrolled in computer science in Trinity College. Studying and working at the same time was difficult but also enjoyable, she says. Her fees were paid by the civil service and she was given study and exam leave.
After graduating, Triona was transferred to the information services division of Customs and Excise, where she worked as a programmer for a year. Then she saw an advertisement for jobs in IBM.
"They were taking on a lot of new people and I knew a lot of people who were applying. I thought it would be interesting work so I applied also."
That was in 1987, and she was one of the successful applicants. The salary increase involved was small. "But the outlook for increasing your salary was better than it would be in the civil service."
She worked for a few years developing software for IBM's internal use. Then, when IBM Ireland won the job of producing a number of new commercial programmes, she moved to begin work on these. She worked on the design of an "information warehousing" product which has since been released, and now works on customised software for the insurance sector.
"If I'd stayed with the Revenue Commissioners I wouldn't be working at the leading edge, as I am now. I'm very fortunate to get this sort of experience.
Although she never thought she would have to emigrate, Triona is conscious of the way the Irish labour market has changed in recent years. More recent graduates, she says, have a different attitude.
"The people who joined nearly 10 years ago felt it was great to get this sort of a job in Ireland. Computer graduates coming out of college now can take their pick of what they want. Usually, they get lots of offers. They have higher expectation rates in terms of pay and what they want to do.
"They're more focused and ambitious than I was 10 years ago. They know what they want and they'll leave if they don't get it."
Triona married in 1991. That same year they bought a house in Palmerstown. They have two children, Diarmuid (5) and Seamus (16 months).
"There is a very positive attitude out there, that in software there are loads of jobs in Ireland. Because of that I wouldn't be worried in the long term about work."
IBM is set to employ many more in the years ahead as it is currently undertaking a major expansion plan. It already employs 1,500 people in Ireland when its sister company, Lotus, is included. This figure is expected to rise to over 2,000 by the end of the year and to as high as 5,000 by the end of the decade, when a new technology campus being opened in Mulhuddart comes on stream.
Late last year, the company announced its intention to undertake the major new project in Mulhuddart, where it eventually promises to employ some 2,850 people. There may be as many as 400 people employed on the campus by the end of this year.
The Mulhuddart project was one of the biggest operations ever won by IDA Ireland. Total investment in the project is expected to be over £200 million, with the first phase of the plan to manufacture computer discs.
IBM is the latest in a line of major inward investment projects which has left major companies competing to attract young graduates.
