Telecoms operator Eir is on a drive to bring all customer-facing roles back in-house.
Irish telecoms operator Eir has revealed it plans to create 750 new jobs at regional hubs in Sligo, Cork and Limerick.
The announcement was made as the company launched 350 of the positions at its new state-of-the-art facility at Rathedmond in Sligo town.
‘Eir is committed to investing in Ireland in every sense of the word’
– CAROLAN LENNON
The roles will be mainly in customer services and are part of Eir’s overall programme to bring all customer-facing functions back in-house.
Connecting with customers
Eir CEO Carolan Lennon said the purpose of the regional programme is to deliver a higher quality of customer service and for the company to have a greater sense of ownership of its products and loyalty to customers.
“Eir is committed to investing in Ireland in every sense of the word, from providing top-quality jobs across the country, to ensuring our super-fast broadband and high-quality mobile service reaches [sic] everybody in Ireland,” Lennon said.
“We have been very impressed with the quality of the applications we have already received so far and I look forward to welcoming hundreds of new members to the Eir team in the coming months.”
Last December, the consortium of French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel’s Iliad and NJJ Telecom Europe was confirmed as the new majority owner of Eir, Ireland’s incumbent telecoms operator, after agreeing to acquire a stake estimated to be worth €3.5bn. NJJ now owns a 32.9pc stake in Eir while Iliad, which Niel founded and which is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, owns 31.6pc. Effectively, the two entities largely controlled by Niel own 64.5pc of Eir. The consortium plans to invest €1bn in the company in the coming years, on top of the €1.5bn it has already invested in recent years.
Eir is deploying broadband across Irish regions as part of a self-funded €250m rural investment programme. It plans to have delivered high-speed fibre broadband directly to 330,000 rural premises by June 2019, with 236,000 having already been completed nationally.
The investment in the new jobs is the latest in a run of good news for Sligo. Last week, e-commerce company Overstock announced 100 jobs for the county while over the summer, outsourcing firm Abtran revealed plans to create 350 jobs and biotech firm Phibro announced 150 jobs.
Sligo also boasts a thriving entrepreneurial scene, and founders at facilities such as the Building Block in Sligo believe that, between them, they can generate 200 new jobs in the coming years.
Eir’s jobs investment was welcomed by the CEO of Sligo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Aidan Doyle. “This new development forms part of Eir’s commitment to investing in the regions and ensuring that broadband and high-quality mobile services reaches [sic] everyone nationally. Today’s announcement by Eir is a result of engagement and collaboration by all the stakeholders in the region.”
