Cisco announces €30m Irish expansion

Cisco Systems, the telecommunications equipment maker, plans to invest over €30 million in a research and development facility in the Republic that will employ 200 people in three years.

The US-based company, which is a leader in the market for equipment that runs the internet, announced yesterday that its subsidiary, Cisco Internetworking (Ireland) Ltd, plans to open a research and development centre in Galway.

Its statement said that the facility will employ 50 initially, but predicted that this will grow to 200 over three years.

Barry O'Sullivan, vice-president of Cisco's communications business, said that the company intended to begin hiring the first 50 engineers for the centre immediately.

He said the multinational intended investing $40 million (€31.2 million) initially in Galway.

Cisco has not yet found a site for the centre, but is looking at a number of locations close to the city, according to Mr O'Sullivan.

He said yesterday that the company selected Galway because of its location close to airports and third-level institutions.

"It's the west of Ireland in general," he said. "It's close to the corridor between Shannon and Limerick, and third-level institutions like University College Galway, the University of Limerick and the institutes of technology."

Asked if Cisco had any concerns about the fact that Galway-based US companies recently criticised the quality of the roads and other infrastructure, Mr O'Sullivan said he believed the issues were being tackled. "Our information is that Galway is going the right way," he said.

Cisco hopes to develop partnerships in basic research with the universities, and Mr O'Sullivan pointed out that other businesses were already successfully taking this approach in the Republic.

The company intends hiring a mix of graduates and people with master's degrees and doctorates, as well as similarly qualified engineers with experience of working in industry.

The centre will work on developing devices and systems that will integrate mobile, fixed-line and video communications with each other.

Mr O'Sullivan explained that the products will be geared at businesses and will be designed to save time and costs for companies by speeding up communications between workers.

Chris Dedicoat, president of Cisco's European businesses, said the group spends $4.1 billion a year on research and development. He claimed that this makes it one of the biggest spenders on innovation in the world.

"This centre will be focused on data, voice and video, and this business is growing for us," he said. "In our most recent quarter, it was growing at 25 per cent a year, and therefore this is a significant investment."

IDA Ireland is supporting the move. Welcoming Cisco's announcement, Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin said the investment was a "superb win for Ireland".

"Cisco has been a major target company for IDA Ireland for quite some time and the location of this research and development centre here was achieved against strong competition," he said.

Cisco already employs 66 people in Ireland.