Tánaiste announces 60 new jobs in Cork

Tánaiste Mary Harney has announced that US company, Dow Corning Corporation is to establish its first Plasma R&D Centre in Middleton, County Cork, creating 60 new jobs over the next five years.

The Tánaiste made the announcement at a meeting with the company in Cork where it was revealed that the investment will total € 3.3 million in 2002.

The Plasma R&D Centre will develop the equipment and process technology for a wide range of sophisticated material coatings and will have responsibility for all the key activities of the business including R&D, product development, product manufacture, marketing, sales, finance and administration.

Welcoming Dow Corning to Cork, the Tánaiste said: "This is a very high quality project, requiring highly skilled people. Twenty of the staff will have PhD's and 65 per cent will have a third level technical qualification. It is an excellent model of what we mean when we say; that Ireland is moving up the value chain in its industrial base and clearly it is in line with the Government's and IDA's strategies of attracting highly skilled and technologically advanced investments to Ireland."

The Tánaiste also emphasised how important the University and Institute of Technology in Cork were in attracting such new investments to the region. She also strongly advocated that young people look closely at science qualifications when selecting their third level courses.

Dow Corning of Midland, Michigan, US, is a privately held Corporation, jointly owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning Inc.

The company employ over 7,000 people, has twenty-three manufacturing sites around the world, seven research facilities and holds almost 1,500 active patents in the US and over 5,000 patents worldwide.

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