Most of the 3,000 new jobs the Government will announce in the weeks before Christmas will be outside Dublin, and almost all will come from three sectors; healthcare, electronics and teleservices.
Sources say the announcements will form "a reasonable regional spread", but with little to cheer people north of a line from Dublin to Galway.
One bright spot, albeit not far above that line, will be up to 300 jobs for Navan, Co Meath. It is believed that a major US healthcare firm is ready to move into the town, and that an announcement is imminent. The company was lured by several elements that gave the location an advantage over other, similar towns. These include road access and the relative proximity to Dublin airport, as well as a well-serviced new business park, 100 acres in size, on the banks of the River Boyne.
In the southern half of the country, while there will be no single project to match this week's 2,050 new positions with Boston Scientific in Cork and Galway, there will be three or four announcements of more than 500 jobs.
The final details of one investment by an electronics company are still being negotiated, but is likely to see the 700 or 800 new jobs it will generate split between Dublin and another location.
Around 60 per cent of all job creation by overseas companies in the Republic comes through expansions of existing facilities rather than "greenfield" projects. In line with this trend, just two or three of the major announcements in the next few weeks will involve new arrivals.
