Róisín Burke on Business

The IDA is set to embrace the joys of open-plan office space

Martin Shanahan of IDA Ireland: the new HQ must be of sufficient status to host international clients Pic: Fergal Phillips
John Delaney, former president of the FAI Pic: INPHO

Welcome, IDA staffers, to a world of raucous sneezing, tuneless humming, smelly desk lunches and passive-aggressive squabbling over the air conditioning. It’s all ahead of ye.

While not being entirely without its dissenters, the IDA’s plan to convert its workforce to the concept of the open-plan office at the fancy new €109 million Dublin headquarters on Hatch Street to which it moves later this year has ...