Meath and Wexford face jobs boost, as Galway braces for closure blow

MEATH and Wexford are in for a jobs boost with an American financial services company planning to create 500 new jobs in the counties, but the employment situation in Galway is not so bright.

PFPC International said it will be adding 200 jobs at its fund administration facility in Wexford and create a new base in Navan, Co Meath, which will employ 290 people.

The company is looking for third level graduates of business and accounting for its new fund administration centre.

When the jobs are in place, it will bring its total workforce in Ireland to almost 1,000. Meanwhile, the Galway city plant of US healthcare products company Cambridge Diagnostics is to close with the loss of 120 jobs.

The US parent firm, Inverness Medical Innovations Group, says the closure is part of a global restructuring in the face of increased competition from countries in East Asia.

It says it intends relocating most of what it describes as its “price sensitive manufacturing’” to China.

The Galway plant has been in operation since 1992. It had been a leading manufacturer of pregnancy predictor testing kits.

The job losses will begin on a phased basis later this year.

PFPC International came to Ireland 11 years ago and employed just two people.

Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin said yesterday that expansion by PFPC was a sign that Ireland could still attract quality foreign investment.

“The PFPC investment is a significant endorsement of the Government’s policy and the IDA’s strategy to attract further new investment, particularly from the international financial services sector to regional locations throughout the country,” Mr Martin said.

The jobs announcement was the twentieth by the IDA so far this year and brings to 2,500 the number of new positions created.

Mr Martin added that several more job creation projects are imminent.

PFPC is a subsidiary of PNC Financial Services Group, which employs 23,000 people worldwide and has more than $84 billion in assets. It is involved in banking, fund and asset management.

The Fine Gael Meath TD, Damien English said he was delighted with the announcement and he hoped it would be the start of a new employment boom in the town.

“This news proves that Navan is a great location for business. Navan is very close to Dublin, has a very skilled and educated workforce and a growing range of services and facilities.”