SIFCO Turbine Components has announced a £12.3 million investment programme which will lead to the creation of 250 new jobs over a five-year period. The funds will be used to expand its aerospace turbine components operation in Cork.

Announcing the expansion, Mr Martin, Minister for Education and Science, said this represented the 22nd IDA backed investment for Cork in the past 16 months. Combined they represent an investment of £300 million, with 4,750 extra jobs promised. "This growth in the industrial base in Cork is unprecedented, and when the spin-off effect is taken into account means that over 10,000 new jobs are coming on stream," he said.

SIFCO manufactures turbine blades and vanes under licence for civil aircraft engines and has 350 employees in its two Cork facilities, in Carrigtwohill and Mahon. The new operation is locating in a 26,000 sq ft custom built facility on a five acre site at Lough Mahon Technology Part, recently constructed to re-manufacture turbine components for Pratt & Whitney, CFMI and Rolls Royce type engines. Established in the US in 1913, SIFCO Industries, the parent, is an independent aerospace component re-manufacturer involved in the production, repair, plating, machining and marketing of jet engine and other aerospace components. The Irish subsidiary was set up in 1983.