Kilkenny is to receive a much-needed jobs boost with a plan by a German software firm to occupy an advance factory in the city. The company, Infoscore, is to create an initial 40 jobs, rising to 100 at full production, at the IDA digital park in Loughboy. The project is to be announced by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, next Friday.
The company makes software which is used to check credit cards, and is the type of industry Kilkenny has been lacking until now, according to a recent study on the city's investment needs.
The study, carried out by the former Department of Enterprise and Employment Secretary, Mr Kevin Bonner, was critical of the efforts made to date to attract high-tech enterprises to the city. "Kilkenny has not got even one high-technology company of reasonable size as a result of the efforts by the IDA to attract foreign investment," it said.
A local Fianna Fail TD, Mr John McGuinness, said the development would make it easier to attract similar enterprises in the future. The digital park has a second advance factory, built by the Kilkenny Industrial Development Company, which commissioned the Bonner study.