Some 1,300 new jobs will have been created in the Cork and Kerry region by next September, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has said.
The Minister announced 500 extra jobs in three existing plants in Cork city yesterday and said that negotiations were almost completed which would lead to a new investor - as yet unnamed - creating a further 300 jobs in the former Pretty Polly plant in Killarney, which closed in 1995. She said she was confident that the deal would be signed with the new investor.
"This is great news for Killarney and we will be announcing it after the IDA'S meeting in September."
Ms Harney also said the Apple Corporation in Cork was in the initial stages of bringing a technical support centre to the city. She declined to specify the number of jobs or an exact timeframe but said it could only be good news.
Apple, which manufactures the high end G3 model in Cork, is one of the city's largest employers. But in January, the firm said it was moving production of the successful iMac model from its plant there with the loss of about 450 workers.
Ms Harney also confirmed this week that the Liebherr container crane company, which has been in Killarney for more than 40 years, would create 170 new jobs. She added that in Castleisland, Aetnam Inc was expanding its health-insurance, claims-processing operation and would be adding a further 70 staff to its existing workforce.
In addition, Fleet Street Travel Ltd, the British corporate travel management company, has become the first investor in the new Kerry technology park in Tralee and is planning an initial operation that will bring 60 further jobs to the town.
The additional employment in Cork - announced yesterday - will be created by an expansion by the Surface Mount Technology Centre (SMT) which is to create 350 extra jobs at its electronic contract manufacturing facility. The German company, Pilz, which is a market leader in safety technology for industrial automation, will create another 100 jobs, and at Datastream Systems Inc, which provides asset maintenance systems, there will be 50 new jobs in its new software operation.
