Satellite broadcaster Sky Ireland officially opened its corporate headquarters in Dublin today, and said it planned to invest over the next five years.

The company has already recruited 500 staff for the new customer contact centre and said it hopes to increase employment there to about 1,000 by the year end.

BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch said the company would invest €1 billion over the next five years in Ireland.

He said the establishment of a base in Ireland was a signal of its commitment to the market here and meant it would no longer be an offshoot of the UK business.

"We see great potential here," he said. "Ireland has been a great, great market for us and more than 2 million homes here tune into Sky channels each week."

Mr Darroch said Sky intends to begin the commercial launch of a broadband service in Ireland next month.

Sky is also planning another series of Moone Boy, which was filmed in Roscommon and has plans for other Irish productions over time.

The launch was attended by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who welcomed Sky's investment and said it was another signal of confidence returning to the Irish economy.