Outgoing chairman of IDA Ireland, Mr Denis Hanrahan, was stating the obvious this week when he said that looking overseas had been seen as helping solve the jobs crisis in periods of very high unemployment.

Introducing the IDA's annual report, Mr Hanrahan said the jobs body was no longer focused on the number of jobs created, but on the quality and location of those positions.

The Margin believes the new policy to be eminently wise. But coming a day after Intel said it was seeking 1,000 additional workers for its plant at Leixlip, more than one wag suggested that certain overseas companies were now adding to the jobs crisis in a period of very high employment. Such are the fruits of success, eh.