Cisco to announce over 100 new jobs

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny is due to announce more than 100 new jobs in Galway today at the Cisco Systems electronics and communications plant in Oranmore.

The US multinational intends to expand its presence in Oranmore, where it currently employs about 180 people in research and development and in its European customer “interaction” centre.

The posts have been secured with the assistance of IDA Ireland, and the company is expected to begin recruiting shortly.

Cisco, which was set up by a husband-and-wife team in California in 1984, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of equipment for computer networks. It was valued at about €30 billion in 2010.

Earlier this year, its European president, Chris Dedicoat, said investment was part of the company’s growing commitment to Ireland. “Ireland is delivering exactly what it was expected to do and more,” he told The Irish Times at the Davos World Economic Forum last January.

The multinational recently signalled that it intended to be “aggressive” in its acquisitions when it bought the NDS Group in a deal valued at about $5 billion (€3.78 billion).

The company established its presence in Galway in early 2007, having already initiated a financial asset management operation in Dublin, which currently employs about 100 people.

Its first Galway base was in the Gaeltacht area of Furbo. It then moved to Oranmore, where it leased a 50,000sq ft premises in Oranmore Business Park.

The company has now earmarked another premises close by for its expansion plans.