The Tánaiste has announced up to 500 new jobs for Waterford. The jobs will be created when an American-based biotechnology firm, Genzyme Corporation, takes over an existing factory on the IDA industrial estate in the city. The firm will take over the site left last year by Luxottica, the Italian manufacturer of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Tánaiste Mary Harney said that the facility would be the initial project in a manufacturing investment which could reach £250m.
Ms Harney asked the IDA in February to make Waterford a priority target for jobs. The Tánaiste has already announced the establishment of a strategy group comprising business, trade union, local government and community representatives to identify the steps needed to bring more investment to the area.
A further 300 jobs for Waterford are expected to be announced shortly at Irish-US firm, Nypro Limited. The Nypro jobs announcement is to be made by Enterprise Ireland. The company is a 50% Irish-owned joint venture with Nypro Inc in the United States and employs more than 40 people at its plant in Bray, County Wicklow. It purchased a 25,000-square-foot IDA advance factory in Waterford last September and the facility has since been extended.
