Eircom win €100m civil service contract in the North
Eircom today beat off competition from British Telecom to win a hi-tech €100m contract in the North's civil service.
It is the latest investment project from businesses in the Republic which has seen jobs announcements by Bank of Ireland and Aer Lingus since the Stormont Assembly was restored in May.
Eircom, which will create 40 jobs in a new operations centre Belfast, will provide a range of services across 11 government departments.
The contract will revamp operations in financial services, human resources management and information and records management.
BT said it was disappointed not to secure the contract but added that it embraces a competitive and open market place in the North.
“We look forward to continued success in both the public and private sectors where we are competing for several other key projects,” a spokeswoman added.
Bank of Ireland announced in July that it was creating 149 jobs in the specialist hedged fund management area as part of a multi-million euro project.
A month later, Aer Lingus said it would be recruiting 100 staff as part of a €150m investment at Belfast Airport.
The move involved the hugely controversial transfer of Heathrow airline slots from Shannon Airport which angered local business and tourism leaders.
Eircom chairman Pierre Danon said tonight: “Eircom’s continued investment in Northern Ireland provides a platform for the future that will deliver flexible high bandwidth to the public service in Northern Ireland”.
Earlier this year, eircom announced plans to further expand into Northern Ireland and initially invested in its network and service operations in the province.
This included a new operations centre in Belfast employing 15 people including network engineers, project managers and qualified service professionals.
Meanwhile, the SDLP today called for a dedicated fund to be set aside for north/south co-operation, similar to EU finance packages for cross-border projects.
Party leader Mark Durkan said there were unallocated resources in the National Development Plan which could be linked to the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC).
