Jobs boost for areas hit by company closures

UP TO 25,000 new jobs could be created in the south- east over the coming years under an employment action plan, said Richard Bruton.

The Jobs Minister launched the initiative yesterday after announcing 276 new jobs in Clonmel, Waterford and Kilkenny.

It is part of a €250million plan across the State’s eight regions, which aims to deliver employment growth of 10 to 15 per cent, chiefly in agri-food, tourism, life sciences, manufacturing, retail and financial services.

It comes after the south-east was hit badly by job losses in recent years. The regional strategy was developed following the closure of the TalkTalk call centre in Waterford city in 2011 when more than 500 were made redundant.

Among the jobs announced yesterday were 200 at a call centre in Clonmel being developed by EishTech, a firm established by former TalkTalk employees.

A total of 36 posts will be created by information security firm CipherTechs in Kilkenny and another 40 jobs in Waterford by Bluefin Payment Systems will be up for grabs.

Mr Bruton said job growth was happening faster in some regions than others. He said: ‘That is why we have put in place the €250million regional jobs strategy to support regions to play to their strengths and accelerate jobs growth in every area.

‘The south-east is a region which has faced major historic unemployment problems, but which in the past three years has started to really bounce back and now has the fastest rate of jobs growth of all of the eight regions in the country.’

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, who is TD for Wexford, said it was vital every region benefited from the growing economy. He said the Government’s prudence was helping create jobs.