Leading timeshare operator RCI will create 250 jobs at its Cork call centre, bringing the number employed there to 750, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has announced, writes Dick Hogan, in Cork. Visiting Cork yesterday, Ms Harney also opened the ABIG Services Ireland financial centre, where 300 jobs will be created over the next five years. ABIG is a subsidiary of the Assurant Group of Miami.

Recruitment to fill the posts at RCI, a subsidiary of Cendant Corporation, has already begun. Most positions are expected to be filled locally, supporting RCI's American market. Business at the complex is conducted in 20 languages.

Worldwide, RCI caters for more than six million people annually and the Cork centre has become a strategic location for its expanding operations.

"We have been very impressed by the linguistic skills of our Irish workforce, but also by their customer-care abilities," said RCI's general manager in Cork, Mr Mike McNeill.

At the ABIG opening, Ms Harney said Cork's positive business environment showed how the regional diversification of financial services could work.