Jobs boost as BioPharma, Yroo and Eir look to add 200 new roles

The State's biggest telecommunications company, Eir, is to add 100 new jobs as the firm ramps up its operation for further rolling out of its high-speed fibre network.

The jobs, which are spread across areas including polling crews, cabling technicians and fibre splicers, will be dotted across the country.

Eir strategic supplier KN Network Services (KNNS) will recruit the staff and expects to fill the majority of the roles over the next three months.

Open Eir managing director Carolan Lennon said the partnership with KNNS is a critical component of the company's broadband investment programme.

"Not only is our partner KNNS playing a key role to ensure that we deliver our broadband solutions to communities right across the country as quickly as possible, they are doing so in a way that supports the local economy by recruiting staff from rural Ireland."

KNNS employs around 1,500 people in Ireland and the latest spate of jobs will add to the firm's relationship with Eir.

"KNNS has worked closely with Eir since 2004 and has expertise in the rollout of fibre broadband networks, not only in Ireland but internationally," KNNS managing director Damien Gallagher said.

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Meanwhile, shopping search engine Yroo is to create 33 jobs over the next three years as it looks to grow its Irish base. The company is adding staff to its Dublin office in order to build out its global operations through customer support for over 35 countries.

As well as customer support, the Irish base will be responsible for management and international sales, as well as business and marketing software development.

"We've seen such a rapid adoption in a very short period of time because we're finally able to give users the tools to easily find exactly what they want - at the right price, from the right merchant - to take the frustration out of online shopping," said James Cunningham, ceo of Yroo.

"We believe that Ireland is the right place for us to be in order to continue to break new ground and grow well into the future."

Yroo lets customers shop for 100 million items from over 7,000 merchants with the service now supporting eight different languages.

Elsewhere Irish firm Biopharma Engineering is to add 70 graduate jobs in Dublin and Cork, primarily in the areas of engineering and project management.

The Cork-headquartered firm has doubled its workforce over the last year.

Biopharma co-founder John O'Reilly said the firm's new Dublin office allows it to service clients better.

"Our company has delivered capital projects worth more than €500m for our clients and we continue to scale in terms of markets, capabilities and ambition."

Enterprise Ireland cleantech manager Stephen Hughes praised the company for nailing down tenders for jobs in Ireland. "The reputation of Ireland as a supplier of high-end engineering services to the world's pharmaceutical industries has been built over time through high levels of investment and continues to grow," Mr Hughes said.

"Biopharma Engineering has developed its own reputation through winning many major contracts in Ireland and is now winning business overseas with targeted customers in a number of key markets," he said.