85 jobs announced for west Limerick's Rathkeale, which saw 170 job losses two years ago
By David Raleigh.
The Minister for Finance has said rural Ireland is experiencing the green shoots of economic recovery, as one town - previously devastated by 170 job losses - today welcomed the creation of 85 locally produced jobs.
The new jobs were announced in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, at DesignPro, an indigenous automation and machine build services company, which currently employs 25 people.
The west Limerick town was left devastated in 2013, when costume jewellery plant Andersen shut its doors with the loss of 170 jobs.
The former jewellery plant was renovated at a cost of €500,000 and is now home to six local companies.
DesignPro plans to double its workforce to 50 by 2017. It hopes to employ 110 people by 2020.
Minister Michael Noonan announced the jobs as he launched a new 120,000 sq ft Enterprise Centre in Rathkeale.
He said there was a "second layer of smaller industry" emerging, which the Government was now in a position to support.
"Some of them are serving multinationals, and others independently producing goods and services and exporting, and it's in that context that DesignPro is effectively designing solutions for multinationals," minister Noonan said.
"If we can plug that into the development of agriculture, tourism, the building industry, retail, - they all need manufacturing to service them in one way or another, so what I would like to see is an integrated development plan for manufacturing industry around the country, and I think we are very near that now," he added.
"If you take the multinational agenda off the table, and look at what's happening in rural parishes, the seeds are being sown for a very strong indigenous base of both manufacturing industries and service industries.
"Nobody cheered when Anderson left (2013), it was a big disappointment, but Limerick City and County Council moved in very quickly with a new plan, and the fruits of the plan are here today with the prospect of 100 jobs in the centre of Rathkeale over the coming years."
DesignPro owner and founder, Paul Collins, said today was a "significant day".
The company opened its operations in 2004, just three years before the recession began to kick in.
Mr Collins said, after a hard fightback, the company is now recognised "as a leading provider of precision automation and machine build services to a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, aviation, automotive, cosmetics and renewable energy."
