The Xerox announcement will have a huge impact on the north-east and may also attract further industrial projects. It will establish the company as the largest employer in the area.
Local business and political representatives welcomed the news. The president of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, Ms Mary Murray, said: `This is the best thing to happen to Dundalk in more years than I care to remember. It is great for the county as well and the level of jobs required means people will be coming from the four corners of Louth."
The chairman of Dundalk UDC, Mr Seamus Byrne, said: "If the predictions [on new job creation] are correct, this news will transcend our wildest dreams."
The Louth TD and Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, said securing the jobs for Dundalk came a year after the Government came into office. "We did indicate our wish to have investment in the regions and this is a classic example of the concentration on the Border areas given by the Border Ministers, myself and Jim McDaid, at the Cabinet table."
IDA Ireland, which had been in negotiation with Xerox since the start of last year, said a shortlist of sites of over 50 acres was being examined. Its regional director, Mr Michael Mullally, added that he was "relieved and happy" at the decision.
While the scale of the investment was sinking in around Dundalk yesterday, there was also confidence that it would not be the last. "The exceptional value of this to us is that our reference selling value for the region will be in a different league," said Mr Mullally. He was keen to credit other multinationals, such as Hewlett-Packard and Intel, with putting Ireland on the global map for such large-scale investments and encouraging Xerox to consider it as a base.
Ms Dolores McKenna, manager of the Dundalk Resource Centre for the Unemployed, said: "We are absolutely thrilled and delighted. Dundalk is one of the black-spots in the country and the Celtic Tiger has not caught up with it. There are so many long-term unemployed people here and maybe the right economic climate will now be created for them."
The pool of labour in the immediate hinterland was a factor in Dundalk's favour. "There is the third-level institute in Dundalk, Queen's University in Belfast, and the universities in Dublin . . . They were all critical; there is confidence that a graduate output is readily available," added Mr Mullally.
The company recognises unions in its US operation, and the SIPTU secretary for Dundalk, Ms Jane Brushell, said: `My view is that people should be unionised. We do not go in to have rows with employers, we go in to talk to them and I am very happy to hear this [union recognition] and look forward to working with Xerox. We are recognised in most multinationals and have a good relationship with them."