Tánaiste Mary Harney today (Monday 8th March, 1999) announced that Tellabs "were embarking on an accelerated recruitment drive over the next 12 months to take on 200 new employees", as she officiated at the opening of the company's new facility at Shannon.

The Tánaiste said that the new Tellabs Shannon facility was a "state-of-the-art plant" and built on a 10-year success story at Shannon.

"The company's commitment to research and development has been, what the Tánaiste described as "central to its expansion and rapid growth". The company has 120 staff directly involved in R&D with an investment of some $15 million per annum on this activity. "This makes it one of the biggest R&D groups in the country, encompassing the full product development lifecycle, from system specification to system validation".

The Tánaiste said that Tellabs was now on a strong future growth trajectory and was well placed to benefit from the convergence of the information and communications technologies. "This new 12,000 sq. metre facility will be key ingredient in the company's drive into broadband communications solutions. The Government is particularly pleased that Tellabs is continuing its commitment to R&D in its new endeavours", the Tánaiste concluded.