About time-Tenant for IDA Park

First tenant is on the way for idle IDA business park
By: Suzanne Pender
THE breakthrough has finally happened for Carlow Business and Technology Park this week with the announcement that the park has just landed its first tenant, creating a potential 200 jobs.

The Irish-owned telecommunications company, Intellicom, will open an office at the business park in May and are now actively recruiting staff in Carlow.


The company, special-ising in IT and telephony services, will initially recruit a staff of 65, however, this is expected to rise to a workforce of possibly 200 employees in the coming months.


Intellicom provide customer-care services to a number of Irish and British clients, handling in excess of 70,000 customer services calls per month.


Despite investing millions in developing Carlow’s IDA business the future of the park has been called into question repeatedly in the past two years, with tough questions asked of the IDA’s commitment to attracting industry to Carlow.


The issue also became political as doubts began to emerge about the long delays in securing industry despite the enormous investment and the many potential investors whose visits to the site proved fruitless.


Carlow County Council has been to the fore in the attempt to attract industry with promotional drives such as ‘Click for Carlow’ and direct approaches made to leading businesses throughout the country all part of their campaign.


Their efforts were redoubled following recent job losses and redundancies in Carlow’s leading manufacturing companies, Braun and Lapple.


Intellicom’s recruitment drive in Carlow will include employing a team of managers, senior customer service representatives and customer service representatives, with advertisements placed in the jobs section of this week’s Nationalist.


Deputy MJ Nolan contacted The Nationalist on Tuesday to welcome the long-awaited announcement.


“I welcome the news of the first company to the Business and Technology campus, it will be the first of many I hope, and I wish the company success in Carlow,” said Deputy Nolan.


“They will, I know, draw from a good, educated workforce in Carlow and I’m sure they’ll find the facilities and infrastructure in Carlow the best of their kind in the country,” he added.