A data centre or "server farm" located in the former Amdahl electronics plant in Swords, Co Dublin will be the flagship project in Nevada Tele.com's push south of the Border.

Belfast-based Nevada - a joint venture between Viridian, the Northern Irish utility, and Energis, the British telecoms company - was set up last year to target the business telecommunications market. The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday formally opened its operations in the Republic, which are based around the business of Stentor, acquired for £46 million in July.

The data centre will be connected via Nevada's own network to a similar facility in Belfast and also to other centres operated by Energis in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Clients will include Mitsubishi, which plans later this year to introduce to the Irish market a TV with built-in Internet access that will use Nevada's network and data centre. The company already provides similar facilities to UTV Internet and Buy & Sell magazine, allowing them to offer their customers access to the Internet without having to invest in infrastructure.

Nevada's plans for the Republic include establishing a presence in Cork, Shannon, Sligo and Galway in order to target business customers in these regions. The company will also open facilities in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, and Castlebar, Co Mayo, to serve call centre clients.

As a result of the Stentor acquisition, the group numbers 22 of the top 50 call centres in the Republic among its clients.