Salesforce to double presence in Ireland with 1,500 new jobs

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Salesforce.Com will more than double its workforce in Ireland by adding 1,500 jobs, marking one of the largest single job announcements in the 70-year history of the state's foreign investment agency.

The San Francisco-based cloud software maker currently employs 1,400 people in Dublin, the European hub for a number of major technology firms, and will add the new jobs over the next five years as it moves into a new 430,000 feet campus on the city's north docks.

"Europe is Salesforce's fastest growing region, and Ireland has been a significant part of our success," Miguel Milano, Saleforce's international president, said on Friday.

"We are excited to be announcing our continued commitment with this investment in Dublin."

The risk of Brexit and escalating global trade wars to Ireland's open economy has done little to dampen foreign multinationals' appetite to set up or grow operations there and avail of its 12.5 percent corporate tax rate.

Foreign investors backed by the state foreign investment agency created a total of 14,000 jobs in Ireland in 2018, up from just over 10,000 the previous year, IDA Ireland said earlier this month.

Foreign firms employed around 230,000 people in Ireland in 2018, approximately 10 percent of the country's workforce.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Paul Sandle)