Two new call centres in Cork and Dublin are to create 550 jobs between them over the next three years, it has been announced.
The news follows the announcement earlier this week that C.R. Bard was to create 500 jobs in Galway. Government sources have indicated that a number of further major projects are to be brought to Cabinet by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, in the weeks ahead.
The call centre for Cork, details of which were announced by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, will employ 350 people and is being set up by US-owned Resort Condominiums International (RCI), the world's largest time-share exchange company.
The other call centre will employ 200 people, The Irish Times has learned, and has been established in Dublin by the American bank, MBNA Corporation. Most of the jobs at the Cork operation, to be based at Lough Mahon Business Park, Blackrock, will be for people fluent in European languages.
RCI's business involves timeshare owners trading their timeshare rights for an alternative holiday in RCI's 3,200 resort properties around the world. RCI then charges a fee for this exchange.
Some 615,000 people in Europe are members of RCI's exchange system and the company say more than 1.5 million people used its services in 1997.
Those working in the Cork centre will assist customers in making their travel arrangements as part of the exchange.
The IDA has announced a total of 17 projects for the Cork area over the last year, involving 4,500 new jobs and investments in excess of £200 million.
The MBNA call centre will provide tele-marketing services to support its primary business of lending to individuals through credit cards.
While the company, which is listed in New York, takes deposits and makes loans, unlike other banks it has no branch network.
It generates a substantial amount of its income by authorising and providing company credit cards, a practice known as "affinity marketing".
The company has already started recruiting for the call centre, situated on St Stephen's Green, with the jobs to be split equally between third level graduates and those with secondary education.
Recruitment has also started at RCI and more than 150 jobs will be filled by the end of this year.
The company say it chose Cork because of the State's telecommunications infrastructure and the availability of "enough well-educated people with good communication skills and fluency in European languages".
The Minister for Education recently announced plans to provide 60 international tele-services places at the College of Commerce, Cork.
Yesterday he said this initiative and courses operated by UCC and the Cork Institute of Technology would help to supply sufficient numbers of qualified people to the RCI centre.
Construction at the premises in Blackrock is currently underway and the company is temporarily leasing premises on the Pouladuff Road, in Cork.
RCI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cendant Corporation, a large consumer and business services company, with its headquarters in Parispanny, New Jersey, and Stamford, Connecticut.
Cendant owns brands like the Days Inns, Howard Johnson, Ramada hotels and Avis car rental.
The jobs at MBNA will be created gradually throughout the year and employees will deal almost exclusively with Irish customers.
Applicants will ideally have "customer contact" experience, say the company, and all the jobs are permanent.
