How much longer can it go on? After something of a lull over the past couple of months, IDA Ireland has announced some more attractive projects over the past couple of weeks, including a teleservices operation from the Merchants Group in Cork, the Oxford Healthcare data processing centre in Mullingar and the Bausch & Lomb expansion in Waterford.
The most pleasing thing from the IDA's viewpoint and from the Government's is the regional spread of these projects.
The string of announcements is also good news for Tanaiste Mary Harney, who was forced to firefight on a few closures, or threatened closures, in the early weeks of her term. She is now following her predecessor Richard Bruton in unveiling hundreds of jobs each week.
The IDA has succeeded in attracting a few projects to Cork over the past couple of years and Waterford has now turned into a priority area for the organisation. The attraction of Oxford Healthcare to Mullingar is also something of a coup, as projects of this kind usually locate in or near a major urban centre.
The word now is that a number of other major hi-tech projects, in a number of locations around the State, are in the pipeline and will be announced over the coming weeks.
