February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
Not every region of Ireland has benefited equally from the recent years of economic development. But good news has come to County Donegal in the form of 200 jobs created by five Irish-owned companies. Donegal is one of the parts of Ireland where it has been harder to spot the Celtic Tiger than elsewhere.
Enterprise Ireland has helped facilitate the overall investment of more than £8 million, and the tanaiste, Mary Harney, made the announcement yesterday in Donegal, where she visited a new £2.1 million business center in Letterkenny that will open in October. Called the Enterprise Fund Business Center, it will offer the real estate for future light industrial development.
According to the Irish Times, the 200 jobs will open up with five companies based in Carndonagh, Moville and Letterkenny. Harney said that the development would set the trend for the future of employment in Donegal, one of the most peripheral parts of Ireland and Europe — small- to medium-sized companies, as opposed to the experience with Fruit of the Loom, whose job layoffs in recent years were largely to blame for the depressed local economy.
More than 100 jobs will be created at Iontas in Moville, a software company that started operations last year.
Most of the jobs are expected to be created at a software company in Moville. Iontas, which began operations last year, already employs 11 people and plans to increase this by more than 100 over the next three years. According to managing director Martin McCreesh, even a U.S. economic downturn would not present any problems, as Iontas’ software product was designed to help firms with cost-cutting and staff streamlining.
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Textiles and clothing are also providing jobs in Donegal. Hamel Clothing in Letterkenny hopes to create 16 jobs in the next two years, and Moville Clothing has 17 more jobs on offer.
Moville will also get an additional 45 jobs through Atlanfish, which processes shellfish for sale throughout Europe. Donegal Meats has indicated that 40 jobs will be created in the next two years in Letterkenny.
Donegal County Manager Michael McLoone welcomed the jobs, and pointed to the seven-year development plan set in place by the Donegal Employment Initiative Task Force.
Latest statistics from the Central Bank of Ireland indicate that the torrid rate of growth in the Irish economy is now likely to slow to a more manageable pace, down 11 percent in the last two years to a predicted 6-7 percent in 2002.