US multinational Johnson & Johnson, which employs around 2,000 people in Ireland, has promised to invest more than €100 million on the expansion of a business in Limerick that makes disposable contact lenses.
The development will bring the value of the group's Irish projects to €630 million.
The investment by Johnson & Johnson's Vistakon unit will create more than 120 jobs within two years at its plant in the Plassy Technology Park, near the University of Limerick.
The company already employs more than 500 workers there.
The move to expand the Vistakon business is likely to be confirmed today by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin. State investment agency IDA Ireland has agreed to provide grant aid to the company, although the level of assistance will not be disclosed.
News of this investment comes amid a spate of job losses since the start of the year, with big employers such as NEC in Co Meath and Fruit of the Loom in Co Donegal cutting hundreds of jobs.
The latest of these job losses came yesterday when Wyeth Pharmaceutical said that 250 of its staff in Newbridge, Co Kildare, will lose their jobs by 2007.
In spite of such setbacks, IDA Ireland is on record as predicting up to 30 new job projects in the first half of the year.
Other big international groups such as US biopharmaceutical firm Amgen and internet retailer Amazon.com have confirmed plans to expand their Irish operations.
Vistakon makes the Acuvue range of soft contact lenses. With 2,500 staff worldwide, the company was the first to make a disposable contact lens in 1988.
The new staff in Limerick, many of them graduates, will work on the design, development and manufacture of technology for new lens products and product components.
The company's expansion comes two months after EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes signed off on a €48.25 million Government grant for a big development at Ringaskiddy in Cork by another Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Centocor.
Now it has the EU decision, Centocor, a maker of biopharmaceutical drugs, plans to invest some €530 million in the Ringaskiddy development, which will eventually employ a total of 750 people.
