The Táinaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, yesterday welcomed the single-largest job expansion in the country this year when she confirmed the US medical device manufacturer, Guidant Corporation, is to create 1,000 jobs to add to its existing workforce of 1,000 people at its plant in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
Ms Harney announced details of the expansion, involving the construction by Guidant of a 125,000 sq ft facility at its premises.
She said it would allow the company develop its new generation of stent medical devices, used in the treatment of cardio-vascular disease, and it would see the company double its current spend in the Irish economy of €80 million per annum.
Management at the plant will have responsibility for bringing the new generation of stent from the research and development stage to first-time volume production.
The decision by Guidant Corporation to locate the production in Clonmel in the face of stiff competition from the company's other operations in the US was a tribute to the local management team under managing director Mr Ger Cronin, she said.
No details of the investment by Guidant were disclosed but it is understood that the company received IDA Ireland assistance in the region of €10,000 to €12,000 per job. The medical devices sector is viewed as being among the most stable of multinational company investment.
Ms Harney welcomed that the 1,000 new jobs - recruitment for 500 of which will commence next year - span a range of skills. There will be jobs for people with Leaving Certificate, diploma and degree qualifications, and also for people with special qualifications in engineering, chemistry, biology and material sciences.
"The high value of the project is reflected in the above average wage levels and the new expansion brings significant new employment opportunities for the people of Co Tipperary and its surrounding counties," said Ms Harney, who paid tribute to the people and local agencies in the town for their determination to promote the area following the closure of the Seagate disk-manufacturing plant, with the loss of 1,400 jobs, in 1997.
The Seagate factory had previously housed Kentz engineering and Digital computers, both of which shut in quick succession in the early 1990s, with over 500 cumulative job losses. The same facility was to subsequently house the Guidant plant.
The other major recent setback occurred in 1999, when German clothes-maker Schiesser ceased production with 135 lay-offs.
Ms Harney said the new Guidant investment would attract a workforce from the entire region.
The chief executive of IDA Ireland, Mr Seán Dorgan, said the new investment proved that Clonmel and the Republic could compete globally in medical technology.
Guidant along with other medical device companies would make the State one of the leading locations in the world for the production and export of coronary stents and other cardiovascular products.
Mr Cronin said the company had allocated a 15,000 sq ft area in the existing facility to carry out stability tests on the new generation of stents.
The first 500 jobs will be in place by 2008. Guidant, which last year had a turnover of $3.7 billion and a net profit of $330 million, has a 40 per cent share of the medical stent market as well as a 40 per cent share of the invasive defibrillator market.