MORE THAN 400 jobs will be created by the Rehab Group as it expands its operations in Ireland over the next three years.
The not-for-profit organisation is to create a further 350 jobs at its facilities in the UK, Poland and in the Netherlands.
Rehab provides training, employment, health and social care services for 56,000 people in the EU each year, including those with disabilities and the marginalised.
The jobs will be created in the areas of training, education, social care, IT, sales, management and administration.
Speaking at the announcement yesterday, which was attended by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins said the company aimed to support 75,000 people by 2015.
“Our overriding objective is to improve the lives of the people we support and to provide sustainable employment for our staff, both with and without disabilities,” Ms Kerins said. Ninety per cent of people who complete Rehab training courses in Ireland go on to further education, training or employment, she added.
Mr Bruton said a central part of the Government’s plan for jobs and growth was to drive similar indigenous enterprise.
“Yes, we must continue to attract world-class multinational companies, but we must also ensure that we have more Irish companies growing to scale, competing and succeeding in world markets, and creating more jobs.
“Rehab is an Irish organisation which had success in its original field, branched out into new sectors, competed and succeeded in export markets and created large-scale employment,” Mr Bruton said.
Ms Kerins said while most people would know Rehab’s work in the disability sector, the company also runs other businesses in each of the countries in which it operates. Rehab is Ireland’s largest processor of glass for recycling, exporting nearly 100,000 tonnes a year.
“We also operate a resource recovery business in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands, and an international logistics business in Poland and the Netherlands,” Ms Kerins said. The company also has a retail business and significant gaming and lottery interests.
