THE 145 jobs announced by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Co Galway yesterday were first publicised by the company involved two years ago, Enterprise Ireland has confirmed.
The posts in wind turbine manufacture outlined by Mr Kenny in Athenry, comprise part of an expansion package of up to 250 jobs announced by CF Tooling in May, 2009.
The CF Manufacturing group, which employs more than 1,100 worldwide, has created a subsidiary, CF Green Energy. It intends to create the 145 jobs over the next three years and recruitment is now under way.
The subsidiary aims to make small wind turbines which are designed to provide wind power on farms, factories and in homes.
Enterprise Ireland said it supported these posts through employment grants, but the State involvement had not been secured when the company unveiled its plans two years ago.
“The company had to undergo a research and development phase, which is now complete,” a spokeswoman for Enterprise Ireland said.
The 145 posts were in addition to some 40 posts already in existence at the project, and the company’s long-term aim was to expand to 250 posts, she said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Kenny also said that this was her understanding of the situation.
Speaking before he opened a €40 million engineering bloc at NUI Galway, Mr Kenny said there had to be a “demonstration of far greater interaction between universities, colleges of technology” and “what I see here” at Athenry.
