In a positive day for the city, Limerick native Aongus Hegarty, Dell's vice president for SME businesses has announced the Texas-based computer giant – which laid off 1,900 manufacturing staff last year – is once again recruiting, with 100 new positions to be created – half in Limerick and half in Dublin.

And this number could grow even more over the next few months as Dell's revenue grew in the fourth quarter last year.

"There are currently a number of vacancies on site. The available roles are diverse and cross a range of specialist functions that are currently based on the Limerick site.

"A range of different qualifications and skill types are required to fill the high end technical and engineering roles.

"Dell in Limerick is a global strategic hub for operations, services and a range of support services in areas such as legal affairs, finance, admin support and marketing," a spokesperson for Dell said this Tuesday.

The news has been welcomed by the IDA's chief executive Barry O'Leary, who said: "Dell is much maligned in this area, and indeed what happened here was devastating to the Mid-West economy. But this just shows there are still a number of companies still investing."

Despite the fact Dell shed 1,900 jobs in Limerick last year as it sought to move its European manufacturing base to the Polish city of Lodz, it remains one of the largest employers in the region, with more than 1,000 people employed in service and support.

The computer giant set up shop here at the start of the 1990s, and at its peak during the Celtic Tiger, it employed more than 5,000 people. That number is now 1,050 people in high value positions.

Some of the 1,900 Dell staff let go have been able to benefit from the European Globalisation Fund, a continent-wide scheme designed to enable a return to education, job search or entrepreneurial assistance.

The Dell Redundant Workers Association, set up in the wake of the computer giant's devastating announcement in January 2009, has been supervising the outflow of this fund.