Minister Kelleher announces €15 m in new business for Irish companies on Australian trade mission

10 May 2010

The Minster for Trade and Commerce Mr Billy Kelleher T.D. today (Monday) announced that contracts and agreements worth €15 million were concluded by Enterprise Ireland client companies during this week’s trade and investment mission to Australia.

The multi-sectoral mission comprised 44 Irish companies from a range of sectors such as software, financial services, telecoms, e-learning, life sciences and environmental services and visited Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.

Speaking at the conclusion of the mission Minister Kelleher said: “I am pleased to announce €15m in new business in Australia for the companies that participated on this important trade mission. These successes endorse Ireland’s global reputation as a source of high quality products and services.”

“Exporting success such as that achieved by these innovative and quality Irish companies are hard won but are critical to Ireland’s economic prosperity and securing employment back home in Ireland.”

Asia Pacific Director of Enterprise Ireland Alan Dixon added: “Australia is a key market for Irish products and services with €200m exports per year making Australia the ninth largest export market in the world for Irish exporting companies.

‘We see significant future potential across many of Ireland’s key exporting sectors in Australia and will continue to focus our efforts on ensuring Irish exports continue to grow in this exciting market.”

Among the significant announcements made by Irish companies during the trade mission to Australia this week were:

• Galway company Health Care Informed secured a €200k deal with The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne
• Folamh, the Dublin-based recycling company, announced a €3.5m deal with Sony Australia to reduce the number of mobile handsets that end up in landfill.
• Louth e-learning company Learnosity secured a €100k contract with Queenland’s Association of Independent Schools for the implementation of Learnosity’s voice assessment and learning solution.
• Irish financial software companies Norkom and Trintech each secured a significant contract with two of Australia’s leading banks, National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank respectively.
• Dublin company Fineos announced it secured new contracts for the installation of their claims processing platform with a number of clients.
• Galway DCC provider Fintrax celebrated ten years of business with Australian Customs
• Dublin High Potential Start Up (HPSU) Currency Fair made its global launch in Sydney. Currency Fair is an internet-based platform that creates a new marketplace for currency exchange.

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For further information contact Ciara O’Mahony, Press Officer, Enterprise Ireland,Tel:+353 1 7272284, Mob: +353 87 2043435

Roisin McCann, Press Officer, Dept. Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Tel +353 1 631 2222, Mob: +353 87 2594144