That's rubbish. I could name a very large famous Irish website which is developed in Belarus.
There are no obstacles. I've been using off shore workers (developers and QA) from a number of countries including Ukraine, China, Russia and India and I've never had any problems.
I see your point, but in fairness you are a developer. You know the playing field. You know what questions to ask and how to get the results you want from the offshore developers. I would think it would be more difficult for someone without any web/design/IT knowledge to initiate proceedings with someone by email and to run a project smoothly.
You need an Irish base. If someone wants to approach you and get the job done, and you decide to use offshore developers that's fine, but I just think asking the regular Irish business person to apprach offshore developers directly is not the way to apprach a new project.
Are you a web developer?
€600 for a brochure website is not very low.
I am a designer by trade. I can also code html/css for brochure sites but if anyone wants heavy development work I will contract a developer. From your point of view €600 may seem high as you outsource all work, but in the Irish industry I think it is quite low.
I'm sorry, but there is no need to hire an Irish person for web development work. You can save a fortune by outsourcing to a foreigner.
Again, I'm a web developer myself. I'm just being honest about the industry.
I accept your honesty and I agree, perhaps you can save a fortune, but I would rather deal with local industry. I would tell the client how much it is going to cost upfront. If they agree, then I pay a local developer the same.
I agree somewhat. But again, you can offshore the coding and design work for peanuts.
So, essentially, are you a middleman? Do you just act as an intermediary between Irish businesses and offshore designers/developers? Sorry, not being smart here, it's just you say you are a developer but that you outsource everything. Do you find this appraoch easier than working as a developer yourself in the Irish industry?
You seem to think only Irish people can do this. I assure you people in other countries also have technical skills. They just have lower wages.
Lower national wages does not mean poor skills.
Not at all, I'm sure they are just as competent, and in some cases more competent. I'm not trying to tell you what you're doing is wrong. As a model, it obviously works quite well for you. I am simply defending the Irish web design/development industry as, in my opinion, you seem to be coming out quite hard against it.
I agree. I have no problem with companies who want to spend a lot for local work (or whatever way they want to spend money.)
The OP has said he wants to keep his costs to a minimum, and I am letting him know how he can do this
I understand that, and I appreciate your point of view, but when I read comments like "I'm sorry, but there is no need to hire an Irish person for web development work" I feel i have to defend the industry in which I earn my crust.