John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join others in acknowledging the staff who facilitated the late sitting last night. I will put on record my thanks to Tegus, which is a US-headquartered company that announced this morning that it is locating its headquarters for the Europe, Middle East and Africa, EMEA, market in Waterford city with the creation of up to 100 jobs over the next two years. This is a great vote of confidence in Waterford city as a location for inward investment and a further shot in the arm for the growing technology sector in the south east. It is another announcement of jobs backed by the Industrial Development Authority, IDA, on the back of recent announcements by Bausch and Lomb, Repligen and Horizon Therapeutics. More than 410 jobs have been announced for Waterford city over recent months and that is very welcome. What makes this announcement stand out a little more than the others is that Tegus is a new IDA client company entering Waterford. I heard the vice-president of the EMEA operation on local radio this morning and he said that Waterford was chosen over Dublin for the EMEA headquarters and the associated jobs on the basis of the quality of life in Waterford, the lower cost of living for employees and the ability to get high-quality staff within the region. It is a very welcome boost. It is important to say that, over the last decade, the number of IDA jobs within Waterford has increased from 5,217 to 7,875 as of the end of last year. I look forward to that upward trend continuing among the client companies of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.