A multinational healthcare company today began recruiting some 500 staff in Co Tipperary.
Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin opened a new €90 million manufacturing operation for Abbott Vascular, a division of Abbott, in Clonmel, the company's eighth plant in Ireland.
The event also marked the start of work on a new €30 million administration building in the town. Mr Martin said Abbott's decision to expand its infrastructure immediately with the recruitment of additional staff by the end of 2007 is excellent news for Clonmel.
"Abbott is to be congratulated on its significant growth at the facility since it acquired the operation in April of this year, having already increased employment there to its current employee count of approximately 850," he said.
Abbott Vascular's operations in Galway have also experienced rapid growth over the past three years, and the company was recently granted planning permission to build a new 150,000-square-foot facility that will include manufacturing, warehousing, laboratories and office space.
Minister Martin said Abbott's investment and 3,300 employees in Ireland confirmed the country's competitive position worldwide to sustain high-value manufacturing activities for leading global companies.
Abbott, one of the first healthcare companies to establish manufacturing operations in Ireland in 1946, employs more than 3,300 people in the country.
PA