The Tanaiste has announced the creation of 250 new jobs in Killarney by US travel management company Rosenbluth International, which is to open an advance reservation call centre.

The centre will be located at the former Kerry Glass building at Killarney and up to 30 people will be recruited immediately. The announcement follows a meeting with company executives in Philadelphia yesterday as part of a US trade mission.

Ms Harney said its decision to locate in Killarney will be a major boost for the region and is its first call centre outside of the US.

The new centre is scheduled to begin operations towards the end of this year and will be seeking to recruit employees with continental European and Nordic language skills but will primarily be focussed on serving English speaking markets.

Rosenbluth provides corporate, leisure and meeting services world wide. It has annual sales of more than $3.5 billion and employs 4,000 people. Rosenbluth is ranked among the 100 best employers in the US by Fortune magazine.

The Killarney operation will employ a general manager, account managers, team leaders and reservation staff, as well as technical support and administrative staff. Ms Harney said Rosenbluth had considered a number of locations and its decision to set up in Killarney marked further success in spreading IDA-supported projects to the various regions.

"It continues the regional dispersal trend for tele-services' projects which were originally convinced they could only operate successfully in Dublin but are now looking seriously at regional towns around the country," she said.