Information Technology Professionals Ready to Return Home

October 01, 2001

Software company Liberty IT conducted research among 20 middle managers and senior staff who had been attracted south by the Celtic Tiger.

But with the economy in the Republic suffering from a slow down, 80% of them said they were now ready to move back to Northern Ireland. The respondents said they would only up sticks if the conditions were right in terms of job availability and political stability.

Among the concerns about life in Dublin were the soaring house prices, the weakness of the punt against sterling and recent job cuts in the IT sector in the Republic.

Liberty IT carried out research in advance of launching a recruitment campaign in the Republic to attract senior software developers back to Northern Ireland.

Gordon Bell, chief executive of Liberty IT, said the market in Dublin had shifted from employee power to employer power. "A couple of years ago the DUblin market was offering lots of exciting and well-paid jobs to lure Northern Ireland graduates and professionals," he said.

"Now that the market has slowed down, and the cost of living in Dublin has noticeably increased, we have found people are starting to look back up to Belfast to see what is on offer."

Other findings from the research showed people's perceptions of Belfast had radically changed. The respondents thought that Belfast had a better infrastructure than Dublin.

The Fair City was still considered to have a more cosmopolitan social life, but it was thought the Belfast scene was 'definitely improving.'

Gordon Bell added:" The results of our research report match the recent KPMG Q People report into what motivates people in the workforce. That report claimed a large proportion (60%) of jobseekers would move outside Dublin if an attractive job arose. We believe that if our ex-pats became more aware of the high level software jobs Northern Ireland now has to offer, then we would see a significant volume of people moving back to the province."

Liberty IT was established in Belfast in 1997. It now has over 100 staff in offices at Adelaide Street and recently announced an expansion programme to hire 20 additional software professionals.

The research was assisted by Momentum, the Northern Ireland ICT Federation, and conducted by Drury Research in Dublin.