Apple has announced they are “very excited” to open a new Dublin office later this year.
The US tech giant opened its first Irish office in 1980, nearly half a century ago, in Cork.
Today, it employs some 6,000 people to support customers in over 130 countries and is the Rebel County's biggest employer.
It has also paid billions of euro in corporation tax over the years.
Speaking to Newstalk’s Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly, Apple VP of Places Kristina Raspe said the company’s new Dublin office would be “complimentary to Cork”.
“Very much similar teams in Dublin, about 300 employees, right near Iveagh Gardens, walking distance to mass transit,” she said.
“We’re super excited that we have found the perfect building, in the perfect location, at the perfect time for Apple.”
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Ms Raspe added that having multiple offices in the same country is standard practice for Apple.
“It’s unusual for us to have a grouping this large in a country, in one location without having other offices.
“In most other locations, we have other, smaller offices.
“So, we’ve always had these other offices that are complimentary to a larger office.”
Apple VP of European Operations Cathy Kearney said the company “love” their Cork campus and people move from all over the world to work there.
“The thing that’s really special about it, I think, is we have 90 different nationalities in that 6,000 people,” she said.
“We support 130 different markets for Apple and we ship to 50 different countries.
“So, we have huge complexity, diversity and everything else going on here.”
The Apple logo in its store in Cork. Picture by: Eoin O'conaill/dpa/Alamy Live News.Ms Kearney added that there is a “bit of everything” going on in Cork.
Some employees work in engineering, others in finance, procurement or customer support.
“People have long careers here and that’s because they move across the different functions, they grow into different functions,” she explained.
“And they see the opportunities across the different functions.”
Main image: Entrance to Apple in Cork. Picture by: Alamy.com.
