130 new jobs announced for Galway

Healthcare firm Alere is to create 100 jobs in Galway city over the next four years, it was confirmed today.

The company is to establish a new international business service centre at the IDA Ireland Business & Technology Park in Parkmore East.

The new positions being cover a wide range of activities including customer and technical support, finance, legal, vendor and logistics management, contract manufacturing management, quality assurance and regulatory affairs.

Alere develops and manufactures products that provide diagnostics and health management for cardiovascular disease, toxicology, oncology and women's health. The company has global sales of over $2 billion and a global network of manufacturing, R&D and sales subsidiaries.

Today's announcement was made by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton and the expansion is supported by the Government through IDA Ireland support.

Alere's president of business operations David Toohey said Ireland provided the key elements needed to allow it to successfully service the group's non-US activities.

"Through the establishment of Alere International Ltd in Galway, we are committed to addressing our non-US-based activities from one central location and have decided that Ireland provides the key elements we needed – a talented workforce, a pro-business environment and good prospects for success, as evidenced by the large cluster of healthcare companies operating so well from Ireland.

Meanwhile,  Onwave, which provides satellite broadband services, is to employ another 30 people in Mullingar and Galway as it develops a new generation of systems. The new positions will be in R&D, project management, finance, sales, information technology and customer care.