60 jobs for Waterford

Telecoms company Talk Talk is to create 60 new jobs at its contact centre in Co Waterford, it was announced today.

The company, which was set up by the Carphone Warehouse, employs 700 people at the facility, which is located outside Waterford city. Set up in 1998, it provides customer support for TalkTalk and AOL customers in the UK.

It said today it is seeking 50 full time and 10 part time workers, and hiring is to begin immediately.

"The driving force behind TalkTalk's growth over the last 10 years has been our people, whose skills, professionalism and dedication are essential to our continuing success," said director of Talk Talk's contact centres Heather Roche.

"We have a fantastic team here in Waterford, made up of highly motivated individuals who put our customers at the centre of everything we do."

The company is due to close the Sligo Tiscali facility next year, which would mean the loss of 160 jobs in the area. Some of the work is intended to be transferred to Waterford. However, a spokeswoman for Talk Talk said discussions over the future of staff in the Sligo operation would be taking place over the next six months, and any staff that are redeployed to Waterford would be employed separately to the 60 jobs announced today.

The Waterford region has been hit with hundreds of job losses this year.

In September, the city's second largest employer, Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland, said it was making 315 of the 705 staff at its plant  redundant.

This followed announcements of job losses at Waterford Crystal, Waterford Stanley, ABB Transformers and Bausch and Lomb.