Services firm announces 250 job boost

WATERFORD RECEIVED an employment boost yesterday with local firm Eishtec announcing the creation of 250 jobs as part of a major expansion of its facility in Cleaboy Business Park.

The decision to expand came after Eishtec secured a contract to provide customer service sales support for clients of UK mobile phone company Orange.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton made the announcement when he visited the Cleaboy facility this morning.

News of the jobs will be welcomed across the southeast, which has suffered serious job blows in recent years, most notably the closure of Talk Talk’s call centre in Waterford’s IDA industrial estate last October, with the loss of 575 jobs.

Mr Bruton established a South East Employment Task Force in response to the Talk Talk closure.

Eishtec provides outsourced services from its contact centre in Cleaboy and employs 30 people.

It was founded in early 2011 by former Talk Talk directors Heather Reynolds, Brian Barry and Colm Tracey.

Speaking at the jobs announcement Mr Bruton warned that the Government couldn’t create new jobs and it was up to companies to come up with their own plans and develop their own markets in order to expand.

Mr Bruton said he couldn’t commit to any future job creation projects but that the Government would “support companies” who come forward with plans.

He also said that banks still had “a lot to learn” about operating in a small, open economy where access to credit is vital to the small business sector.

The expansion would not have happened without the support of state agency Enterprise Ireland, he said

Speaking to media, Mr Bruton said he could not reveal the level of assistance given to the company but said he hoped its good news would be “the first of a number of milestones over time that can see the southeast fight back”.

On the future of the banking sector, Mr Bruton said: “I think the banks have a lot to learn and a lot to relearn about what it is to be banking to a small, open economy whose life’s blood is small business and there’s no doubt that small business has struggled very severely in the last number of years.”

The Government had “taken on the banks, head on”, he said, and wanted them to meet specific targets. “Government doesn’t want to be running banks in the long term, so we have to create a strong, viable banking sector that can stand on its own feet, that can serve the economy and that doesn’t depend on the crutch of government in the long term.”

Local FG TD Paudie Coffey welcomed the news. “This is an extremely positive announcement and it is down to the hard work, effort and ambition of the management and staff since the company’s establishment last year.”