Waterford is set to reverse recent trends with the announcement this month that several hundred jobs are to be created in a plant manufacturing parts for the computer industry.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, will announce the jobs at the official opening of the Nypro Waterford facility at the city's IDA industrial park on September 24th.
Recruitment has been under way for some time and the company, which employs more than 400 at its plant in Bray, Co Wicklow, has been extending a 25,000 square foot advance factory purchased a year ago.
A company spokesman could not be contacted for comment yesterday, but Nypro Waterford's general manager, Mr Pat Holohan, has previously said the plant expects to employ between 300 and 400 people within three years.
The company is a 50 per cent Irish-owned joint venture with Nypro Inc in the US and engages in contract manufacturing. The Waterford plant will initially be assembling products for a major client in the computer industry.
The announcement will be the second major jobs boost for Waterford in recent months, following the news in May that Genzyme, a US biotechnology firm, is to employ several hundred at the plant formerly occupied by the Italian manufacturer of Ray-Ban sunglasses, Luxottica.
It will be some time, however, before the Genzyme vacancies are filled. Recruitment of management has begun and the first staff are expected to be on site by next summer. The facility is expected to be fully operational by mid2003 and has a target of 480 jobs by 2006.
Ms Harney has acknowledged, however, that Waterford has not fared as well as other cities in the employment stakes and in May established a task force, Strategy Waterford, to tackle the city's failure to capitalise fully on the economic boom.