The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, is expected to announce the creation of more than 500 new jobs in the electronics industry in Dublin today. It is understood the jobs will be created by Stratus Computer, based at Blanchardstown, which currently employs 350 people.
Under a major expansion plan, the company is set to recruit several hundred people for work on research and development, technical support and financial shared services.
As reported in The Irish Times in January, the company has been negotiating with a major third party manufacturer about outsourcing the Stratus range of products.
The company has considered splitting its operations into three separate units to facilitate this expansion. In addition to the Stratus project, Ms Harney is expected to announce details of another package involving several hundred new jobs. One large company is expected to account for most of them.
Sources suggested last night that plans for up to 1,000 jobs could be announced, in all.
Stratus has been negotiating with IDA Ireland for several months. Today's announcement is part of a series of back office projects undertaken by large multinationals in the Republic in the last year.
Stratus has been manufacturing mainframe computer systems here since 1989 and in 1995 the Blanchardstown facility became the firm's worldwide manufacturing headquarters.
Its customers include AT&T, Bell Atlantic, GTE, France Telecom, BT and Telecom Italia.
Last August the company was acquired by Ascend, a rapidly expanding US technology company, for $822 million (€709 million).
Earlier this year, Ascend merged with Lucent Technologies in a deal valued at $20 billion (€17.24 billion). The deal is expected to be completed in some time in early summer.
The company's future was temporarily thrown into confusion when it was taken over by Ascend. At that stage a doubt hung over the future of the jobs at the plant.
Matters improved when it was decided the Dublin facility would produce some of Ascend's more established and popular lines. Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems said it planned to double the size of its European software centre in Dublin and take on 65 new employees.
The general manager of the Irish company, Mr Luke Conroy, said it had exceeded its growth targets in the Republic by two years and this was the main reason for the new employment. The company is also considering setting up a new facility in Dublin.
