IDA Ireland has agreed a major investment programme with one of the world's leading technology research companies.
The €69m deal between Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs, IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland will create 120 research positions here.
The agreement will also lead to the establishment of a Bell Lab Centre at Blanchardstown in Dublin. This will be a global headquarters for research in telecommunications and supply chain technologies.
The investment will also include the establishment of the Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain-Driven Research to be headquartered at Trinity College, Dublin. The CTVR will involve eight other leading Irish universities and Institutes of Technology.
Tanaiste Mary Harney has described the project as 'highly significant'. It is still subject to EU approval, however.
'The investment is a perfect fit with the Government's policy for the expansion of R&D and the attraction of high-calibre, knowledge-led activities in Ireland,' she said.
'The investment moves us a step closer to becoming a globally acknowledged world leader in next generation engineering, manufacturing, telecommunications and related information technology.
The CEO of IDA Ireland, Sean Dorgan, said the arrival of Bell Labs offered Ireland the opportunity to become a seat of power in the technology development field.
Bell Labs, the R&D division of Lucent Technologies, is the leading source of new communications technologies. It has generated over 30,000 patents since 1925 and has played a key role in inventing or perfecting key technologies, including transistors, digital networking, lasers and fibre-optic communications systems, satellites, mobile telephony, touch-tone dialling and modems.
Lucent Technologies already employs 500 people in Ireland.
