A roundup of today's other business news in brief

NTL to create 50 jobs in Limerick

Television and telecom company Chorus NTL says it is creating a number of new jobs at its contact management centre in Limerick.

The centre employs more than 300 people, including customer support, sales, finance, human resources and technical support.

The company says it intends to add 50 new positions over the year. The figure includes 11 staff taken on as in customer support in November 2009 and a further 27 employees who began work on at the Limerick centre on Monday.

The remaining positions are expected to be filled over the summer.

The jobs were welcomed by Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea, who is TD for the area.

NTL’s chief executive Robert Dunn said the news was “a great start to the year” for both the company and Limerick.

Cargo volumes at port of Cork fall by 18%

Cargo volumes at the Port of Cork fell by 18 per cent in 2009 in what management has said was a challenging year.

Dermot O’Mahoney, Port of Cork chairman, said all areas of port business were exposed to the slowdown in the past 15 months.

However, he predicted a return to growth for the port in the second half of 2010.

“National port statistics indicate that the rate . . . of the decline in shipping traffic volumes continued to ease during the third quarter of 2009, with growth forecasted to return in the latter half of 2010,” he said.

He added that a technical, environmental and planning assessment had begun of suitable sites for development to service the region’s business and trading needs.

Takeover of waste firm to be investigated

The Competition Authority has decided to carry out a full investigation of the proposed takeover by Greenstar Holdings of Veolia Environmental Services (Ireland) Limited from its owner Veolia Propreté SA.

Greenstar is controlled by National Toll Roads. It provides waste management for domestic and commercial customers. Following a preliminary investigation, the authority was unable to conclude that the proposed acquisition would not lessen competition.