Jobs News

DSG Retail Ireland will create 100 jobs after confirming the first phase of a development programme that will see the opening of new stores in 2010 and a roll-out of a new retailing format. The programme will commence this summer.

In addition, plans are being developed to completely re-fit the PC World store in Galway and the Currys and PC World stores in Limerick following the success of Currys in Galway which has traded above expectations since its refurbishment in the latter part of 2009.

Business will operate as normal during these developments and no existing jobs will be affected during the course of this activity.

Commenting on the development, Declan Ronayne, Managing Director of DSG Retail Ireland Ltd said: “In a very tough economic environment, we have proved our retailing mettle by trading successfully. We’ve done this by focusing on Value, Choice and Service for customers, as well as trimming costs where possible and becoming an even leaner, more efficient operation. Introducing eye-catching campaigns like the UK Vat Campaign where we offered parity with Northern Ireland’s prices also drove customers to our stores.

MONEX Financial Services, Killarney-based card processing firm is to create 14 new jobs, thanks to a deal with car rental company Hertz. Monex will provide Hertz with software that will allow the car company’s customers to make credit card payments in their chosen currency. The Irish company said the deal will add EUR1.5 billion to the EUR8 billion it already processes on behalf of customers around the globe. Monex currently employs 150 people.

Global online payments company PayPal today announced the creation of a further 100 new jobs in Customer Service and Operations at its European Centre of Excellence in Blanchardstown, Dublin. The new roles are in addition to the 150 extra jobs announced during 2009.

PayPal currently employs more than 1,100 people at its Blanchardstown site. Today’s announcement has opened up further opportunities for permanent positions in customer service and operations for individuals fluent in English and a second European language. More information about these positions can found at www.paypaljobsireland.com.

Commenting on the announcement, Uwe Heddendorp, Vice President PayPal European Operations, said: “It is a great testament to the team here in Dublin that we are able to announce the creation of further jobs at PayPal. Our European business continues to grow and I am proud to be able to once again support Irish job creation.”

The Taoiseach, who opened the PayPal European Centre of Excellence in March 2009, said: “I am delighted that PayPal continues to go from strength to strength. The creation of a further 100 jobs is great news both locally and nationally and it underlines Ireland’s continuing ability to attract high-calibre Foreign Direct Investment. I want to congratulate PayPal on their latest achievement and wish the company and their staff every good wish for the future.”

Commenting on the announcement, Barry O’Leary, CEO IDA Ireland, said “PayPal’s investment represents a key endorsement from one of the world’s leading online companies, and is further evidence of Ireland’s ability to compete for and win high quality technologically advanced Foreign Direct Investment. This expansion builds on Ireland’s reputation as a global hub for the digital media sector. On behalf of IDA Ireland, I look forward to supporting the continued growth and development of PayPal in the future.”

PayPal’s European Operation Centre opened in Dublin in 2003. Since then the number of staff has increased from just 25 to more than 1,100 today. In 2009, it announced an investment of €15m to support the development of a European Centre of Excellence in Blanchardstown. The Dublin centre manages all direct customer contact for PayPal’s businesses across Europe.

The availability of a highly experienced, multilingual workforce and the proximity to many of our European customers were key reasons for our choice of Galway for these important operations.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan TD today, 19th January 2010, announced that StreamServe Inc., a leading provider of business communications solutions, is to establish an Inside Sales and Customer Care Operation in Galway, creating 20 jobs, with the support of the Government through IDA Ireland.

StreamServe, will initially employ 20 people at the Galway operation in areas such as sales, maintenance renewals, and customer care operations, servicing both the U.S. and EMEA markets.

The Tánaiste, welcoming the decision, said “I am delighted to announce the official opening of StreamServe’s new Irish operation in Galway today. This investment is great news for Galway and the west region in particular. It is a positive endorsement from an industry leading software company that Ireland can provide the necessary skills and pro-business policies to assist companies such as StreamServe’s rapidly growing international business. I wish to congratulate the company on this important day and to assure StreamServe that it has the full support of the Irish Government as it develops its operation in Galway.”

“I am delighted to officially announce the establishment of our Inside Sales and Customer Care center in Galway,” added Dennis Ladd, StreamServe’s president and CEO. “The availability of a highly experienced, multilingual workforce and the proximity to many of our European customers were key reasons for our choice of Galway for this important operation. We look forward to doing business here for years to come.”

About StreamServe:

StreamServe is a leading provider of Enterprise Document Presentment solutions that set the standard for business communications. Simple to deploy and maintain, the company’s dynamic composition, document process automation and enterprise output management solutions meet the demanding challenges of today’s global businesses for producing and delivering highly customized documents in any format.

StreamServe’s advanced software solutions ease the process of composing and automating business communications, enabling organizations to increase the value and profitability of their business relationships. This is done all while leveraging existing business applications such as ERP, CRM and ECM.

The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Burlington, Mass., with 14 offices worldwide. StreamServe serves more than 5,000 customers in 130 countries, primarily in the financial services, utilities, manufacturing, distribution and telecom sectors. Customers include BMW, CLP Power Hong Kong, AmerisourceBergen, and Siemens Financial. StreamServe’s strategic partners include Adobe Systems, IBM, InfoPrint Solutions Company, Lawson and SAP AG. At the SAP for Utilities 2009 conference in Washington, DC, StreamServe became the only technology vendor awarded an “SAP Collaboration Fuels Innovation Award” for its integration with SAP solutions in developing innovative solutions that meet the business needs of today, as well as those of the future.

Mr Dara Calleary T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Labour Affairs, today (18th January 2010) officially opened the new EMEA Headquarters of on-demand translation technology and service provider, Sajan, Inc., in Dublin.

Sajan Software, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sajan, Inc., plans to generate 35 high skilled jobs over a three year period at the operation, creating opportunities for software engineers, localization engineers, testers, project managers, quality personnel, sales executives and accounts personnel. The Dublin operation will drive and support the continued evolution of Sajan’s leading-edge translation management system (TMS), and its broader suite of localization solutions.

Speaking at the announcement today, Minister Calleary said: “I am delighted to officially open the new EMEA headquarters and R&D centre for Sajan in Dublin today. The establishment by Sajan of a Headquarter Operation of this nature demonstrates the strength of Ireland’s reputation as a location for software investments, linguistics and translation. Sajan Software, Ltd. will play a strategic role in Sajan’s overall operation and Ireland will be a vital element”.

Shannon Zimmerman, CEO, Sajan said: “The launch of our new European Headquarters in Ireland represents Sajan’s longstanding commitment to the future of cloud-based translation technology”.
“Ireland was a natural location of choice for our EMEA Headquarters and R&D Centre, due to the availability of a highly skilled workforce and Ireland’s commitment to research, development and innovation (RD&I). We look forward to counting Dublin as a pivotal hub of our European presence”, he added.

About Sajan
Sajan is the innovative way to obtain language translation solutions. Sajan’s language translation technology provides not only a Translation Management System, GCMS, to serve as the operating platform, but also provides users with flexible delivery models and a transparency to all aspects of the Localization process while delivering previously unrealized business results.
Website: http://www.sajan.com

Mobile phone retailer 3G Mobile has confirmed the temporary closure of all its stores in Ireland. Staff were made aware of the closures yesterday.

It is understood that negotiations with alternative investors are now underway. The company has 27 stores nationwide and 150 staff are affected by the temporary lay-offs.

3G says it has retained a core staff to deal with customer queries and is hopeful that the stores will re-open.

The move by 3G Mobile has no link to the 3 mobile network, which is owned by Hutchison Whampoa and which claims to be the country’s fastest growing mobile network.

US multinational Maxim Integrated Products chooses Ireland for its international business centre

Company to initially recruit 50 staff in Dublin, 100 by 2012

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan TD today (Thursday 17th December, 2009) announced that major US multinational firm, Maxim Integrated Products is to establish a new international business operation in Dublin, with the creation of 50 staff initially, rising to over 100 by 2012. The development was facilitated by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.

Maxim’s new international business, financial, and technical customer services centre in Dublin will serve the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, along with parts of Asia. The centre will initially employ accountants, financial analysts, supply-chain specialists, information technology (IT) technicians, and multilingual customer-service staff. Maxim is hiring immediately, and details of these new career opportunities can be found in the careers section of the Company’s website at: www.maxim-ic.com/careers.

Speaking at the announcement, An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD said: “The decision by Maxim Integrated Products to locate its International Business Services Centre in Dublin reinforces Ireland’s international reputation as a thriving centre for the delivery of International Business Services. Maxim is a technically innovative, leading edge company and its products are world-renowned in the ICT industry and the high calibre of the jobs to be created by the company reflects the Irish Government’s strategy for a Smart Economy. I am delighted to welcome Maxim to Ireland and look forward to working closely with the company as it develops its Irish operation”.

Maxim was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Silicon Valley in California. The Company is an industry-leading designer of high-performance semiconductor (microchip) products for the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. The Company has been profitable every year since it went public in 1988 and employs approximately 8,800 people worldwide. Maxim invests over a quarter of all its revenues in R&D each year and announces on average one new product each day.

The Company is research driven, and holds multiple patents and industry awards for its inventions. It has a highly successful business model where it develops and owns its own intellectual property (IP). To stimulate new design ideas and product development, it operates 34 international technology centres, while 24 sales offices across the globe ensure close contact with over 35,000 customers. To control its business more directly, it operates 10 wafer fabrication and testing facilities worldwide.

Maxim’s products are used in portable and consumer devices like mobile phones, laptops, handheld Internet devices, cameras, set-top boxes, and LCD televisions. The Company’s chips also operate in numerous automotive, medical, industrial, broadband and communications functions, and in a vast array of other electronic systems.

“Dublin will be a strategically important international centre for Maxim,” said Tunç Doluca, President and CEO of Maxim. “We are investing in Ireland because the country has a talented and technically qualified workforce, and it has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting R&D.” Maxim’s international growth plans are concentrated around delivering innovation and the recruitment of highly skilled personnel. “The positions we are creating in Dublin will support our presence in key markets across the EMEA region, and will add long-term value to our global business development,” Doluca added.

About Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance semiconductor products. The Company was founded over 25 years ago with the mission to deliver innovative analog and mixed-signal engineering solutions that add value to its customers’ products. To date, it has developed over 6200 products serving the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. Maxim reported revenue in excess of $1.6 billion for fiscal 2009. A Fortune 1000 company, Maxim is included in the Nasdaq 100, the Russell 1000, and the MSCI USA indices. For more information, go to www.maxim-ic.com.

For further information
Maxim Integrated Products
Tim Kinsella,
MKC Communications, Tel. +353 1 703 8600

IDA Ireland
Gillian Lawless,
Press & PR, Tel : 01-6034190

Remote security monitoring firm Netwatch hopes to create at least 20 jobs with the launch of a new managed service.

Carlow-based Netwatch will absorb the costs of a site survey, install its cameras at the client’s premises and charge a monthly monitoring fee. Prior to this, the company sold cameras and ancillary monitoring equipment to clients and charged what managing director David Walsh described as a “modest” monitoring fee.

Netwatch, which has clients in Ireland, Britain, the US, Spain and South Africa, remotely monitors security cameras that are connected to its command centre in Carlow. Software systems built into the cameras analyse the images and notify staff in Carlow of suspicious activity.

Netwatch currently employs 70 staff.

150 voluntary redundancies are sought by National Irish Bank as part of a restructuring plan announced today.
The restructuring will result in closing almost half of the bank branches (25 of 58) in Ireland during 2010 and 2011.
NIB Chief Executive Andrew Healy reaffirmed the ‘continued commitment’ of the bank’s parent, Danske Bank Group, to the Irish market.
Mr Healy said: ‘The banking sector in Ireland is on life support. Banks have to react by reducing costs and amending their business models. We are taking these actions to ensure we have a long-term future, a healthy future.’
The bank employs almost 700 people today.

120 jobs are to be cut at Permanent TSB under a voluntary severance scheme as the bank reduces its number of branches from 103 to 92.

The affected staff will receive 7.25 weeks pay for each year of service to the bank.

Late last year PTSB offered staff paid career breaks in an effort to cut costs.

Today’s announcement that it is closing 11 branches follows the closure of its network of 48 ‘tied agents’ earlier this year.

In a statement his afternoon the UNITE trade union said that its members had agreed to incentivised career breaks, comprehensive redeployment and an effective recruitment embargo.

The statement said: ‘We do feel let down and disappointed at this requirement to close branches with consequent redundancy, and inevitable disruption and redeployment for those members remaining with the organisation‘.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has announced it will create up to 250 new jobs at its headquarters in Tallaght in west Dublin over the next three-and-a-half years.

Paddy Power, which already employs 640 people in Dublin, is recruiting as part of its strategy of international expansion into the online sports betting market.

The company is to recruit 50 people with skills in technology and risk management by next summer, with the remainder generated over three subsequent years.

Paddy Power has said it is lending its bet pricing and risk expertise to the French state controlled horse racing betting system, called PMU, for a five-year period from next year.

PMU is Europe’s largest betting organisation with €9.3 billion of sales in 2008 generated through 10,000 retail outlets. This morning PMU has announced it plans to become an online player for sports betting.

In that regard, this is an enormous opportunity for Paddy Power, making the company a significant exporter of services from its Tallaght base.

Paddy Power is already the largest online bookmaker in the UK and it has also grown strongly in Australia over the last year.

Chief executive Patrick Kennedy said Paddy Power was looking for more overseas opportunities.

Global online betting has an estimated current turnover of €50 billion, but that is set to double in the coming years.

All of the 250 jobs to come on stream in Tallaght will be for people with graduate skills in areas like IT and e-commerce.

The standardised unemployment rate in October was 12.5%.The drop in unemployment comes after 30 consecutive months of increases. The total Live Register figure for the October was 412,407, a drop of 7,447 on the previous month, but an increase of 161,727 year-on-year.

This is the first positive piece of news about Jobs in Ireland. It needs to be taken with the caution and understanding of the overall picture.

The Live register figures show 67,207 job losses year to date. Therefore we are far from what the news here and abroad are saying – that we are coming out of the recession. The reality is that we are at the bottom. And also – we will be happy if this really is the bottom. If this is not just a single month where unemployment growth paused for a month.

The following unemployment graph puts us well into the perspective – a reality check of the status of the economy.

The calendar quarter estimates for Q2 2009 (adjusted for seasonality) are:

HP is to create 50 new jobs in Co Galway as part of a new €11million expansion project in the region while online retailer Buy.com is to take on 40 employees.

HP announced this morning that it is to establish two new IDA-supported highly strategic research and development and projects at its Ballybrit facility.

One of the projects will involve the establishment of a centre of expertise for cloud computing services, while the second one is focused on setting up a research and development (R&D) group focused on process innovation.

Announcing the expansion this morning, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said the decision to establish the projects in Co Galway were a ‘vote of confidence in facility’s capabilities.”

HP is one of the largest multinational companies in Ireland, with over 4,000 people employed across its core business groups in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast.

In a separate announcement, online retailer Buy.com said it is to establish a European Operations Centre in Galway city centre, leading to the creation of 40 highly skilled positions over four years.

Recruitment is to commence immediately for positions in multilingual customer support, online sales and marketing, finance and software design and development.

The new facility will be located at Mayoralty House, Flood Street, in the centre of the city.

Sajan, a Wisconsin-based software company has established a new subsidiary which will be headquartered in Dublin.

The firm, which develops on-demand translation technology, said the new entity, which is called Sajan Software Limited, will house and support cloud-based translation technologies.

About 35 jobs are to be created mainly in R&D and sales, the firm said.

It added that after reviewing a number of possible locations it selected Dublin as its new headquarters because of Ireland’s reputation as “a business-friendly country” and it closeness to European customers.

“The launch of Sajan Software represents Sajan’s longstanding commitment to the future of cloud-based translation technology,” said Vern Hanzlik, president of the newly established subsidiary.

Today’s announcement has been welcomed by IDA Ireland.

“The establishment by Sajan of a headquarter operation of this nature demonstrates the strength of Ireland’s reputation as a location for software investments, linguistics and translation,” said IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary.”

“Sajan Software Ltd is to play a strategic role in Sajan’s overall operation and Ireland will be a vital element in this strategic role,” he added.

Sajan’s expansion into Europe builds on its recent move into India. In December 2008, the company opened an office dedicated to software research, development, quality assurance and operations in New Delhi.

The company, which was established in 1997, currently employs about 90 people at its global headquarters in River Falls, Wisconsin.

In more good news on the jobs front, Newsweaver is to create 33 new jobs in Cork. The Bandon-based internet services firm will also invest EUR700,000 in research and development as part of the expansion.

The firm provides software that allows companies to publish and send newsletters to their customers. Newsweaver’s clients include the UN, Shell, AIB, Bupa and Philips.