The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, will announce today the creation of 440 jobs by Shinko Microelectronics in a £70 million expansion of its operation in Tallaght, Co Dublin.
Ms Harney, who arrived in Tokyo yesterday at the start of a 10-day trade promotion tour of Japan, New Zealand and Australia, will travel by bullet train to the company's headquarters at Nagano in central Japan to make the announcement.
Despite new allegations in yesterday's newspapers concerning the Taoiseach's ail fundraisingcontacts with property developer Mr Tom Gilmartin, there was no indication last night that the Tanaiste would be breaking her trip to return home or that she would be seeking any clarifications from Mr Ahern.
Ms Harney did not make any comment yesterday but a spokesman said: "The Taoiseach spoke to her on Friday at length in relation to these matters and clarified them."
The creation of 440 jobs at what will be the Japanese company's first semiconductor test and assembly plant in Europe comes hard on the heels of the news that Apple Computers expects to announce up to 500 job losses at its plant in Hollyhill, Co Cork.
The expansion by Shinko, a subsidiary of the Fujitsu group, will be located in the Tanaiste's constituency at Whitestown in Tallaght and will take place over four years with the support of the IDA. A leading manufacturer in semiconductor packages, the company already employs 266 people at its existing facility in Tallaght. This is part of a worldwide workforce of 5,000 people at plants in Japan, Ireland, Malaysia and South Korea.
The Irish operation will give Shinko a strategic foothold in the European market. Tallaght was chosen partly because of the highly-skilled workforce in the existing facility and the advanced development of Ireland's computer industry. Ms Harney expects to meet the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Keizo Obuchi, tomorrow when she will put the Government's case for a seat at the UN Security Council in 2001-2003. En route to New Zealand, the Tanaiste will make a brief stopover in the Solomon Islands to lobby for the Pacific country's support for Security Council membership.
At a reception for the Irish community last night, hosted by the Irish Ambassador to Japan, Mr Declan O'Donovan, Ms Harney said the Government was determined to increase the profile of Ireland in Asia in the coming months. This is one of the key recommendations of a report to the Taoiseach by the Asia Strategy Group, comprising Government and private sector interests.
Frank McNally adds:
The Taoiseach faces further questioning in the Dail this week over what Fine Gael claims was misleading information in his Dail statement last Wednesday about the Gilmartin affair.
Yesterday Mr Ahern dismissed suggestions that he misled the Dail on a meeting between a Dublin city councillor and Mr Gilmartin, and rejected Sunday newspaper suggestions that media questioning forced him to correct his account to the Tanaiste before her weekend departure to Japan.
While Opposition parties continued to predict an early general election - Fine Gael's Mr Michael Noonan said there could be a general election in April or June - Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, side-stepped a question about whether the Opposition would table a no confidence motion, saying that this was really an issue for the Progressive Democrats.