Tag Archives: employment

ELEMENT Six are taking on another 40 staff in Shannon and say that there is likely to be scope for further growth due to a €25 million capital investment and the relocation of €20 million of assets to the Shannon plant. Five years ago the company announced redundancies and the overall number of Shannon employees dropped to 250. However it has since rebounded to around 360 and is now set to hit 400. Walter Huhn, Chief Executive of Element Six, was in Shannon on Wednesday and he said that the painful cost cutting measures introduced in Shannon have secured the future of the plant, and led to a situation where it is now expanding again. “We started the restructuring in Shannon five years ago with a very clear focus on what we wanted to achieve, what we had to achieve because the global market was changing and the competitive environment was changing. We had to be even more of a …

Government plans to create thousands of jobs in a potentially lucrative business at Shannon Airport hang in the balance, after the European Commission vetoed a special tax incentive scheme designed to attract major international investors. The Government has been forced to start new negotiations with EU authorities to try to come up with an amended tax break plan, which was a flagship project that was earmarked to generate thousands of jobs, by facilitating the construction of aircraft maintenance hangars and ancillary facilities in Shannon. The decision has been described as a “disappointing set-back” and a “serious blow” by Fianna Fáil Deputy Timmy Dooley, who hopes efforts will continue to ensure the revised plan will be successful. However, Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen believes this move does not jeopardise Shannon Airport’s efforts to develop an international aviation centre and will, in fact, “probably put Shannon in a stronger position”. Deputy Dooley expressed concern the revised tax incentive package would be much …

THE number of people working in Enterprise Ireland (EI) client companies in Clare rocketed last year, according to figures presented to the Dáil by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton. There were 1,580 people in full-time jobs in Enterprise Ireland’s Clare-based client companies in 2012, which jumped by 921 to 2,501 last year. In addition, the number of people working in non full-time roles in EI client companies increased substantially, from 194 to 365. Indeed, the number of client companies in the Banner increased by just over a quarter, from 120 to 151. Separately, there is speculation that one Clare-based multinational could announce the creation of several hundred jobs in the early part of next year. If this comes to pass, it would be by far the biggest employment boost seen in the county for years. Enterprise Ireland is the State organisation responsible for supporting the development of Irish enterprises that are involved in exporting. To put EI’s …

AFTER some difficult years, which saw significant job losses at Shannon, the pendulum has now swung the other way, with hundreds of vacancies in local companies. Speaking in the Senate recently, Shannon’s Tony Mulcahy said there are now hundreds of jobs available in the town and local business figures agree that things have definitely turned after a very severe recession. As the legislation on the independence of Shannon Airport went through the upper house, Senator Mulcahy said, “Between 600 and 800 jobs are currently being advertised on the industrial estate and I have no doubt that, in seven or eight years, there will be up to 8,000 jobs available.” When he spoke to The Clare Champion on Tuesday, he outlined numerous companies that are now looking for new employees. “Wipro are hiring, they’re the old Halifax and they’ll be hiring people in September. Pepper Finance are hiring. EI have been taking people on all the time and they’re one of …

CALLS were made to have the recruitment embargo on the employment of local authority workers lifted at a meeting of Clare County Council. Councillor Christy Curtin raised a motion calling for an update on staffing and budgetary matters arising from the newly established Municipal District Offices and Local Enterprise Office and Service Centre. Meanwhile, Councillor PJ Ryan asked the council to request the relevant minister to lift the embargo on the employment of local authority workers. Councillor Curtin asked for a time-frame for alignment of road engineering areas with municipal district areas and the implications for delivery of the road and allied infrastructural services. According to Eddie Power senior executive officer at the Human Resources Department of the council, the realignment of the five roads engineering areas to four roads engineering areas to coincide with the new Municipal Districts of Shannon, Ennis, West Clare and Killaloe has been completed. “An adjustment at operational level to the functional areas of SGSS’s …

By Owen Ryan FIFTY new jobs are coming to Shannon as Pepper has announced it will create the positions at its servicing centre in Westpark. The company has invested €500,000 in expanding its premises and the additional space would provide capacity for another 30 workers after 50 are recruited. There are currently 120 people working there. Pepper has signed an addendum to its existing ten year lease which will see its office space increased to 19,000 square feet. This follows a €2 million investment in new systems and office facilities undertaken last year. The new jobs will be in mortgage arrears handling, customer service, real estate expertise and legal expertise. News of the jobs comes a week after Zimmer confirmed it has taken on 30 new staff since the start of the year in Shannon. Paul Doddrell, CEO of Pepper Ireland said the significant change to the lease terms is due to a requirement to facilitate its rapidly expanding operation. …

The number of people on the live register in Clare declined slightly in February. According to figures from the Central Statistics Office, there were 9,242 people on the live register in the Banner county in February, compared to 9,418 in January. There were reductions in the number signing on at each of the live register offices, Ennis, Ennistymon and Kilrush. In Ennis, the numbers went from 5,167 to 5,085; in Ennistymon from 1,605 to 1,567; and in Kilrush from 1,318 to 1,271. There were 10,058 people signing on in Clare in February 2013, meaning there has been a reduction of 816 in 12 months, a drop of just over 8%.