The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, has announced that 700 new jobs are to be provided over the next four years in Galway and Athlone, Co Westmeath, following expansion by the Irish company, Manufacturers' Services Ltd (MSL).
While in Galway, she also confirmed that a £10 million (€12.7 million) national business fund to encourage companies to trade in e-commerce had been set up by Enterprise Ireland.
Some 600 of the Manufacturers' Services jobs will be based in Galway, and 150 staff will be taken on immediately by the global electronics manufacturing service firm, which was established five years ago by Mr Kevin Melia in Athlone. Manufacturers' Services currently has revenues of almost $1 billion (€1.04 billion) and has more than 5,000 employees, with 1,000 in Ireland - "a tremendous Irish success story", the Tanaiste said.
Announcing the details in Oranmore, Co Galway, yesterday, the Tanaiste said the company was building a greenfield facility in Galway, supported by IDA Ireland and located on the IDA's Parkmore Industrial Estate. By the end of 2004, it would employ 600 people in a manufacturing and systems-assembly operation. The 100 extra jobs in Athlone are to be created by the end of next year.
About 30 per cent of the workforce will comprise people with third-level degrees or diplomas, mainly in engineering and technical disciplines, with the balance being filled by people with second-level qualifications. Mr Tony Boyle, head of MSL's operation in Ireland, said that "the availability of the right skills, a well-developed supply base and a business-friendly environment were instrumental in this decision to expand MSL operations" here.
Both the Tanaiste and Mr Boyle expressed confidence that skilled personnel would be found, in spite of the Tanaiste's reported concerns earlier this week that 200,000 skilled personnel would have to be found abroad to meet labour targets. Ms Harney said yesterday that there wasn't a "skills shortage"; the problem was that the labour force was not increasing at a sufficient rate to keep up with targets in the National Development Plan.
She placed emphasis on attracting Irish people back home and said that there was also a need to retrain those who had been employed and may have lost jobs in traditional industries.
Asked if refugees could not be employed in such jobs, she said that 1,300 certificates had been granted to asylum-seekers who had qualified, under a Government agreement whereby those here more than a year could work.
However, many asylum seekers were not highly skilled. "This doesn't mean they shouldn't be entitled to work," she added.
Asked if asylum seekers could not be retrained, Ms Harney said FAS had been told to make training schemes accessible for those who were granted refugee status.
Yesterday's jobs package comes just weeks after AT Cross, the US pen manufacturing company, confirmed that up to 190 jobs would go in its Ballinasloe plant in Co Galway. The Tanaiste has pledged to secure new investment for Ballinasloe and has established an interagency group to examine and respond to the needs of the employees.
