DA Ireland chief executive Barry O'Leary, said today that about 2,300 new jobs had been created in IDA assisted companies in the year to date, but that about 6,000 jobs had been lost.

The majority of the lost jobs were at at Dell Computer's Limerick plant and at aircraft maintenance SR Technics' facility at Dublin Airport.

O'Leary said the fall in labour costs was good news but some sectors would need to see salary reductions of up to 15% because Ireland had priced itself out of certain markets.

He was speaking at the publication of IDA Ireland's annual report for 2008 in Dublin this morning.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD welcomed the launch the report, which showed the number of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Ireland increased by 14% with a total of 130 new investments. IDA client companies created 8,837 new jobs in 2008 but net jobs fell by more than 1,000 to 136,000.

The IDA attracted 35 new projects in 2008.

Exports from IDA client companies at €92 billion account for over 80% of all exports from Enterprise Agency assisted companies. However, IFSC operations in Dublin are not included in this data.

With the primacy that is given to spin by the minister and the IDA itself, it is not clear how the positive indicators stack up.

Counting the number of projects in 2008 and saying the number has increased by 14% in 2008, is of limited use as there is no value/size comparison.

The IMF report on Ireland in June, said Ireland has lost market share in the global and Eurozone flows of FDI (foreign direct investment). FDI inflows into the Eurozone have tended to fall as a share of world FDI flows.

However, Irish FDI shares have fallen faster. In recent years, Ireland has become the most expensive location in the Eurozone, with the possible exception of Luxembourg. The transformation from a location for low-cost manufacturing to a center for high value added production and services is ongoing. However, the IMF says research shows that FDI flows to a country are highly influenced by recent momentum - - increased global competition for FDI implies that task for Ireland is increasingly harder.

This is analysis, which is counter to the rosy scenario presented by Irish policy-makers.

The IDA report also has information on the R&D aspect of projects but again it's more spin oriented with the current popular jargon on the "Smart Economy" and "Clean Technology, Services Innovation and Convergence."

The report says: "We are well respected for our ‘can do’ attitude, our motivation to excel, our dynamic response to challenge and our ability to achieve above and beyond the expectations of a small, open economy. By remaining positive and confident in our ability to bring stakeholders together collaboratively we can predict that Ireland’s FDI landscape will continue to grow, diversify and exert maximum impact on Ireland’s economic recovery as the global economic upturn commences."