Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do not fail in delivering jobs to the county. Only last Tuesday morning, I made a good announcement together with the chief executive officer of the Californian company, Microsemi, for the town of Ennis, which is close to Clarecastle. We announced that a €3.2 million contract had been awarded to the company by the European Space Agency for a general support technical programme to develop cost-effective, integrated motor drive solutions for thrust vector controls in aerospace applications. That will expand Microsemi's operations in the county where the company currently employs 270 people. We have made other announcements relating to the county as well. Microsemi is a fantastic company that exports €120 million worth of products annually and it is expected to increase that by another €20 million annually by 2020. It has a state-of-the-art aviation centre of excellence. I advise the Deputy to visit it and to see what else Ennis has to offer. Let us be positive, not negative, about job creation. The future of work and job types are changing. The digital economy is changing everything we do. The centre of excellence employs ten people but that number is expected to increase to 45 in the coming months. Up the road, Vitalograph announced 100 new jobs last year.

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