New jobs announced for Clare and Donegal

OVER 180 new jobs were announced for Cork and Donegal yesterday.

Clare Spring Water is to create 100 new jobs at a new water bottling facility 6km from the Co Clare village of Lissycasey.

Air travel technology provider SITA, which already employs 73 people in Letterkenny, is recruiting for 80 new positions as part of an expansion of its Irish software development centre.

Family-owned Clare Spring Water was founded after the discovery of the underground source by a water diviner, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), using a twisted metal coat hanger. The €4.2 million bottling plant employs 10 people, but this is expected to grow to 100 over the next three years.

These jobs will be created in a new biodegradable bottle manufacturing and recycling facility as well as in sales, marketing and engineering. This represents an investment of an additional €7 million in processing plant, machinery and construction.

Managing director Paul Connellan said yesterday: “At the moment Clare Spring Water has a team of 10 producing a range of still and sparkling waters in traditional recycled bottles which have proved very successful.”

“However, the Wellness brand has been created in response to the need for a pure spring water from an organic source and presented to the customer in the most environmentally friendly bottle that we can find.”

SITA, which was set up by 11 airlines in 1949, provides services for 550 air transport members and provides what the company terms “the backbone of the global air transport industry”.

According to Francesco Violante, SITA’s chief executive officer, the “high performance” of the Letterkenny staff and IDA support was a factor in the expansion. Describing the expansion as a “good news” story, he pointed out that it comes as the global airline industry will suffer losses of an estimated $11 billion this year.

“SITA is quite resilient, we invest in innovation and that is why we are here today,” he said.

The Letterkenny facility will focus on three areas; e-commerce solutions, airport management solution systems, and border management solutions. It has also developed close links with Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

The employees are part of trans-national teams working on the development and installation of specialist IT systems for airlines including Air New Zealand, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

The Irish team has also taken on the development of SITA’s airport management systems in US airports including Boston and Los Angeles. At Dublin airport, SITA is involved in providing specialist IT and communications systems for the new terminal two. The Letterkenny operation was set up after the company purchased Eland Technologies in 2003.