Uisce Éireann call centre set to create 400 jobs in city

A call centre for the State’s new water company Uisce Éireann is to create 400 jobs in Limerick, sources close to Finance Minister Micheal Noonan said yesterday.

The centre will be set up at the former Dell manufacturing building in Raheen industrial estate.

When commenting on the new jobs last month, Mr Noonan would only say that talks on the jobs were at the final stages of negotiations.

But it has now emerged the jobs will be located at the EMF 3 building in Raheen, vacated by Dell after it moved its 2,000 job manufacturing facility to Poland.

It is expected the first 100 jobs will be provided by the water company within a year and the remainder will be in place by mid 2014.

Last April, the Government announced the introduction of domestic water charges which will be administered under a new body to be established as an independent state- owned company with the Bord Gáis group.

It is expected that Bord Gáis/Uisce Éireann will take over the operation of water services from local authorities on a phased basis over a five-year period.

Fexco, the Killorglin based service provider, is believed to be a front runner in the bidding war to get the licence to run the call centre.

The company has worked with Bord Gáis since 2008.

A requirement of the bidding process was that the jobs would be based in a major urban area.

Workers at the call centre will deal with all customer queries.

Mr Noonan refused to make any further comment yesterday.

However, an official announcement is imminent.