The Tanaiste has announced the creation of 75 jobs at the Citywest business park yesterday.

The announcement was made as Ms Harney opened the European software development and administration centre of Synopsys, a US electronics company.

Recruitment of key staff for the IDA-supported project will begin immediately and most of the jobs will be for software design and electrical engineering graduates.

"The Synopsys centre will be a high-quality operation and will be the most integrated electronic design automation project in Ireland," said Ms Harney.

The Citywest centre is part of Synopsys's strategy to target Europe for significant growth in the next five years.

It will be the base for research and development activities, as well as manufacture and software product distribution.

"We are very pleased to be able to open the Citywest centre and to be able to draw on the skills of Ireland's talented engineering graduates," said Dr Chi-Foon Chan, president and chief operating officer of Synopsys.

The Tanaiste said there were 35 companies in Citywest employing more than 1,500 people in high-tech industries. She envisaged that eventually more than 10,000 people would be employed at Citywest with the addition of the National Digital Park providing broadband telecom facilities.

"The winning of this software centre, against intense competition from other locations worldwide, is a further success for IDA Ireland in the implementation of its strategy to win additional high-skill and value investment from companies that are leaders in their sector," said Ms Harney.