Telecommunications company Digifone is to expand its customer care centre in Limerick with the creation of 140 new jobs over the next year. The centre currently employs 240 people.

The company plans to open a state of the art 40,000-square-foot customer care centre in Plassey Technological Centre. The mobile telephone operator, which is understood to have almost 200,000 customers, now employs almost 580 people nationwide.

The announcement follows a mixed week for Limerick and the Shannon region on the jobs front. Household appliance maker Krups said last Friday that it would close its manufacturing plant in Limerick with the loss of 500 jobs.

However, on Monday NTS Computer Systems in Shannon said it was seeking 540 people for its operations as part of a Government-backed £15 million investment. German Software company NavaraSoft also said it would create a further 52 jobs as part of its development of mobile computing business application solutions.