The opening coincides with the return of thousands of staff to the office involving a new hybrid model that applies up to three days per week after more than two years of remote operations caused by Covid-19 restrictions.

The expansion follows the establishment in 2019 of a team in Cork focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AIML). That has now grown to more than 680 people drawn from 20 nationalities despite the existing challenges of recruitment for the correct mix of skills.

Apple's vice-president of European Operations Cathy Kearney said: “The fight for the high tech skills is definitely there. I think we have been doing well because of our brand but it is taking longer. You have to plan ahead more.” 

It’s not only in recruitment that tech companies have faced challenges over the past 12 months, as orders for personal computers have faced a bumpy fulfilment schedule because of supply chain problems involving shortages of semi-conductors, backlogs in ports, and weather disruption.

At one stage last autumn delivery times were in excess of three months and even now can be eight weeks for popular machines. This is another potential nail in the coffin of the “just in time” model which has dominated manufacturing and some forms of accountancy for three decades and more and marks another switch in the rhythms of world trade.

Not that this will worry anyone this morning who has been holding shares in Twitter ― the world’s self-proclaimed digital town square ― following the €41 billion takeover by the wealthiest man in the universe, Elon Musk.

For those people who love Twitter, and there are lots of you, the prospect that things will stay the same is nada, zero, zilch.

Among the likely changes are the inclusion of an edit button, highly useful for those, and there are some, who tweet before engaging their brain. Twitter Blue, the network’s paid-for subscription service is a target for growth. And the subject of verification, currently vexing all purveyors of social media and those who would legislate for them, is another target for transition.

Musk wants Twitter to open its verification feature that authenticates the identity of public figures to users who pay as part of an effort to cut down on spam bots.

Musk has had a lot to say about the concept of “free speech” but precious little so far about what that means in practice other than he wants its policies to be “inclusive”, whatever that means in the real world.

The highest profile victim of what the Right regards as “censorship” was former President Donald Trump who was banned last year. Trump, who has been going through a dance of the seven veils concerning his thoughts about re-running for the White House in 2024, has said so far that he will not return to the platform even if access is restored to him. He will be lending his weight to his own TruthSocial startup which is scheduled to commence within seven days.

Whether or not the Donald takes to the hustings (there are 922 days before the next election) we may all be the beneficiaries by then of a new service, currently being trialled in Google Docs, which prompts the use of “inclusive” language while you type, flagging up words such as “policeman” and “mankind.” 

The AI goes beyond spelling and grammar, which already provides a potential source of irritation for some users, to prompt a moral sensitivity and builds on previous applications deployed on mobile phones and email clients. 

So it may be an ideal companion to a Twitter world where people can “speak freely within the bounds of the law.” Or a homogenised, self-censorship, feature for those who like such things.