70 new jobs for Border counties

AT LEAST 70 new jobs are to be created in the Republic over the next three years with the expansion of Northern Irish company

O’Kane Plumbing Electrics into the Republic.

The jobs will be located in the Border counties of Monaghan, Donegal and Cavan and will require staff from a range of sectors, including surveyors, tradespeople, administrators and managerial staff.

Managing director of the company Maurice O’Kane said the company hoped an apprenticeship programme would get under way.

The company confirmed yesterday that the first 15 jobs would be advertised in late July, with the appointments being made in August, while a further 15 will be advertised in December, for commencement in early 2010.

By next summer, the company hopes to have 40 staff in place in the south, with a further 15 joining the company in each of the following two years.

The Tyrone-based company, which was established in 1989, employs about 60 people and undertakes approximately 1,500 installations a year in the North.

Although its core business was traditionally in the field of plumbing and electrics, in recent years it has expanded its renewable energies services and is one of the leading installers of solar panels in the North. Most of the new jobs will be in the area of renewable energy.