Pictured at Bluefin Payment Systems' new Waterford premises on Monday morning with Jobs Minister Richard Bruton were, from left: Tim Barnett (CTO. Bluefin), Elaine Fennelly (Bluefin), Ann-Marie Tierney Le-Roux (SE Regional Manager, IDA) and John Perry (CEO, Bluefin).
Waterford’s ‘rich talent pool’, its ‘amazing’ IDA Regional Director and pro-active City & County Council were all cited on Monday morning as the American-headquartered Bluefin Payment Systems opened its new facility at the Cleaboy Business Park.
The words of Bluefin Chief Executive John Perry came as the perfect precursor to the launch of the Government’s South East Action Plan for Jobs, which has set out the ambitious delivery of 25,000 jobs “over the coming years”.
Speaking to The Munster Express, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said the €250 million jobs strategy, which aims to deliver 10 to 15 per cent employment growth across the region, said he hopes the plan’s “immediate actions” will be realised over the next 18 months.
“The idea is that this will be a rolling programme, just like the jobs plan nationally. I believe this is an area we haven’t tapped in the past; we haven’t had real regional enterprise strategies and this is the first time we’re doing that.”
The Action Plan was launched at Eishtec on a morning when the Waterford-based firm announced the creation of 200 new jobs in a custom built centre in Clonmel, which are expected to be delivered inside the next six months.
Flanked by all bar one of the south-east’s ministerial cohort – Brendan Howlin, Alan Kelly, Paudie Coffey, Ann Phelan and Tom Hayes, and with Seanad Leader Maurice Cummins and Deputy Ciara Conway also present, Minister Bruton said the “special spotlight” the coalition has directed on the region is paying off.
“In the last four years, we have seen 25,000 additional people at work in the south east, but we believe we can do better,” he said. “And this is about bringing all of our agencies and the various players in the region – the local authorities, the Educational Training Boards and the Institutes of Technology together to work on common goals across different sectors…
“The ambition is for 25,000 additional jobs and today (Monday) we are making a good start with 275 jobs in a number of individual projects. But the success of this will depend on getting all of the agencies collaborating to deliver. We are making funds available on a competitive call basis which will seed that opportunity and I would like to thank Brendan Howlin particularly for his support in getting this approach off the ground.”
Minister Bruton was in Waterford to attend two jobs announcements, with Bluefin Payment Systems establishing a Technology & Operations Centre in Cleaboy, where it will create 40 jobs over the next three years.
Company Chief Executive John M Perry was fulsome in his praise for Waterford and to those who had ‘sold’ the city and county to him as a location in which to establish its Irish base.
“We first came here last December and we fell in love with the area,” he told the gathering assembled at the launch, which included Waterford City & Council CEO Michael Walsh, along with Mayors John Cummins and Eamon Quinlan.
“We were very impressed by the resources, the people and the city itself…the IDA was amazingly patient as we went through this and with our ability to somehow entice Elaine (Kenneally) to join us, we’re very, very excited about our opportunities and our future in Waterford.”
Bluefin’s Cleaboy centre will be fronted by General Manager and Waterford native Elaine Fennelly, who was a co-founder and CFO of FeedHenry which was acquired by Redhat Inc in 2014 for €63.5 million.
Founded in 2007, Bluefin, whose headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia, hopes to have 10 staff in place at Cleaboy before Christmas. The company provides “a secure payment platform for merchants, independent software vendors (ISV) and financial institutions”.
Minister of State Paudie Coffey said this was “another good news story for Waterford and the south east”, stating that Bluefin’s arrival was “a vote of confidence in the city and the region”.
He added: “Bluefin’s investment is the first international office that the company is opening outside of its American Headquarters and it is a clear indication that Waterford can not only compete but also win large scale IDA-backed investments.”
In addition to Eishtec’s jobs boost for Clonmel, information security services provider CiperTechs Inc is to create 36 new jobs over the next five years at its Security Operations Centre in Kilkenny.