International IT solutions firm Logica has created an additional 90 jobs at its Cork facility, bringing the total employed there in the next 18 months to 140 people.

The Minister of State for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Danny Wallace, opened the £5 million (€6.4 million) production centre at the Cork Airport Business Park.

Logica's decision to extend operations outside Dublin signalled that regional institutions were producing increasing numbers of IT graduates and that IDA Ireland was increasingly focusing on the regions, said Mr Wallace.

The software sector in Ireland now consisted of almost 600 companies, of which 140 were overseas-owned. Employment in the sector totalled some 22,000 people, Mr Wallace said.

Logica, which first entered the Irish market in 1997 with the acquisition of Aldiscon, the Irish mobile telecoms software company for £55 million, already has a staff of 450 at its Dublin headquarters and 50 in the existing Cork facility. Cork staff will transfer to the new centre.

Mr Larry Quinn, Logica's chairman, said the latest move represented a significant milestone for the company. "We have an ambitious growth target in Ireland and the Cork centre is a key element of that."

The Cork centre will encompass marketing, business and product development as well as product testing and customer service.

Last year Logica invested £20.5 million in research and development and this figure is expected to rise significantly during the coming year.