Mary Harney, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment today (Thursday 18th February 1999) announced major new high value investments for Ireland with the completion of negotiations by IDA Ireland for "two flagships projects from two of the worlds leading information technology and electronics companies - Siemens and ICL."

"These two projects will bring 410 jobs to Dundalk, Cork and Dublin and will provide quality employment mainly for graduates of third level colleges", said the Tánaiste.

In a development especially significant for Dundalk, ICL - one of the worlds leading IT companies - is to establish a 160 job software centre of excellence, which will specialise in the implementation and development of software applications based on Oracle technology. ICL will also expand its successful Dublin operations by 100 jobs.

In Cork, Siemens - one of the worlds largest electrical and electronics companies - has decided to establish a customer call centre which will support the European market for the company's communications devices and E-commerce initiatives.

ICL 260 New Jobs in Software Services The Tanaiste said that ICL, one of the world's leading IT companies, had agreed a major expansion of its Irish operations with IDA Ireland which would lead to the creation of 260 new, high skilled, jobs over the next five years. 160 of the jobs will be in a new ICL Software Development Centre in Dundalk and 100 will be in an expansion of the company's operations in Dublin.

The Dublin expansion is at ICL Headquarters in Harcourt St. This office houses the existing implementation and development and sales and training services.

The new ICL Centre in Dundalk will be established as an Oracle Centre of Excellence and will employ over 100 software developers within 3 years. It will specialise in the implementation and development of application solutions based on Oracle technology.

The operation will be up and running in May and a substantial recruitment programme covering radio, newspapers, posters and the Internet will commence immediately. The Tanaiste said that the decision "to locate such a prestigious development in Dundalk" was recognition of "the strong performance of existing ICL staff in Ireland and of the potential in that region for high quality businesses to attract the kind of skilled workers required into the future."

It is an endorsement particularly of the calibre of graduates emerging from the Dundalk Institute of Technology and a further recognition of the resources and infrastructure of that region. "I know that lifestyle, accommodation costs and the commuting factor for the new ICL employees will be a significant attraction to the new Dundalk Centre," said the Tánaiste

ICL has two other Oracle centres, one in Belfast and one in Dublin. The investment by ICL follows an increasing volume of work in Oracle technology won by the company. In addition to its substantial Oracle Financials business, the expansions will address ICL's success in the areas of large-scale data warehousing solutions for major Irish and international corporations; ERP (enterprise resource planning) and e-commerce.

This latest development means that ICL is poised to become the largest developer of Oracle based solutions in Ireland.

Brian Baird, managing director of ICL Ireland said: "ICL's investment is a tremendous vote of confidence by the company in the quality and talent of staff in Ireland. While ICL's Oracle development centres in Dublin and Belfast meet our needs here, a substantial proportion of their work is for ICL operations in the UK and elsewhere. The new Dundalk centre will maintain the high quality reputation already established by our existing operations in Ireland. At our current rate of growth this latest investment will bring the number of staff employed by ICL in Ireland to 1000 by the middle of 1999."

Siemens to establish a Call Centre in Cork creating 150 new jobs The Tánaiste said that Siemens, one of the world's largest electrical and electronics companies, had agreed a proposal with IDA Ireland to establish a Call Centre in Cork creating 150 new jobs over four years.

The new centre in Cork will support the European market for Siemens communication devices (mobile, cordless, fixed phones) as well as PC based telephony and personal information and communication devices. The centre will also support Siemens e-Commerce initiatives in the information and communication products market. Many of the jobs will be for people with fluency in European languages. The call centre will be located adjacent to Siemens existing offices in Cork and recruitment has already commenced.

The Tánaiste said "This project, which was won for Cork amid stiff opposition from Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, is the first international services project undertaken by Siemens in Ireland and will act as a showcase both within the Siemens Group and to its external customers. It is a very welcome decision from Siemens and brings to 28 the total number of IDA backed projects involving over £600 million investment announced for Cork over the past two years. These projects have the potential to create nearly 7,000 new jobs and over 1,000 of these jobs are to be recruited this year."

The new Call Centre will provide pre/post sales support telesales/telemarketing and technical support to Siemens new and existing information and communication product customers.

Siemens headquartered in Munich and Berlin is one of the worlds largest electrical and electronics companies employing 416,000 people at 240 facilities in 190 countries with turnover of IR£47 billion for the year ended 30th September 1998.

Siemens commenced activities in Ireland in 1925 with the establishment of Siemens Ltd. Currently employing 600 people with an annual turnover of IR£130 million.