The 1,500 jobs planned for the new Xerox investment in Dundalk are a "landmark jobs breakthrough for the Border area", according to the Tanaiste.
Announcing the £186 million investment in Dundalk last night, Ms Harney said she hoped the Belfast Agreement would now help to attract more investment to the region.
In what is likely to be the Republic's largest jobs project in 1998, Xerox has said it will hire 2,200 workers in Dundalk and Dublin, creating a strategic centre for Europe.
IDA Ireland sources said the agency had been trying to attract Xerox for more than two decades, and suggested the project would probably be the largest this year. Xerox is one of the world's largest companies, with an annual turnover of $18.2 billion (£12.8bn) and 90,000 employees. It makes photocopiers, fax machines, scanners and digital imaging products, and provides extensive customer support.
The company said its new Irish operations formed part of a restructuring of its business in which jobs elsewhere in the world were being cut. The Dundalk plant, the precise location of which has not yet been decided, will produce colour copier toner as well as providing technical support and other services.
In Dublin the company will be based in the Ballycoolin Industrial Park, near Blanchardstown, and will employ 700 people in its services and customer support operations for Europe. Recruiting for the Dublin operation is to start immediately, while Xerox will look for staff for Dundalk once the factory is near completion. The Tanaiste pointed out yesterday that the investment represented the first major project to have been secured for the Border regions since the signing of the Belfast Agreement. She said the peace process had proved a key ingredient in marketing the Dundalk area. "This is a major breakthrough, especially for the Louth Border area," she said.
She added that because the project would require a wide range of personnel from advanced electronic engineers to relatively unskilled workers it had the ideal mix from an employment point of view.
Xerox's deputy managing director in Europe, Mr Bill Goode, said the company had chosen Ireland after it came up tops against stringent criteria. "Among our considerations were the political and social climate; the skills base of the local labour force; the cost of employment; investment in telecommunications; comparative tax rates; and the track records of companies with similar objectives to ourselves."