| 150 Information Age Jobs for Castlebar |
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On Friday 28th May, An Tanaiste, Mary Harney, announced 150 new jobs for Castlebar to be set up by the UK Cedar Group. The jobs are call-centre based providing employment for a range of skills and expertise. This announcement is the culmination of over a year of work by Castlebar's Information Age Committee in conjunction with the IDA and Telecom Eireann. It is hoped that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Cedar Group and Castlebar. The Cedar Group specialise in software for call centres and this is their first call centre. The company will process telephone calls for major UK retail companies. The group turn over some £14M per annum with healthy £2.8M profits in their last financial year. Other good news announced for Castlebar and Mayo on the same day by the Tanaiste was the expansion the £20M expansion by Baxter in Castlebar and £6M in Swinford creating a further 220 new jobs, most to be located in Castlebar. Baxter will now produce their own dialysis bags in-house incorporating the latest recycling technology to produce and environmentally-friendly plastic which will in turn open up new markets for this major company. Baxter's long association with Castlebar is testament to both the Castlebar workforce and the companie's faith in the town of Castlebar. Why not Work in Castlebar? It is hoped that the new jobs now available in the above new enterprises will attract new workers to Castlebar as well as encouraging Castlebar people to take up well-paid, challenging jobs in their own hometown. Castlebar's ideal location in the green West of Ireland, with modest house prices and minimal commuting times should prove irresistible to those who want to take up a new job in Castlebar and get out of the urban rat race. Castlebar is 3 h from Dublin and 1 h from Galway but milliseconds from the rest of the world due to its excellent fibre optic links to the Internet and international telephone systems. Castlebar's Facilities Castlebar, Mayo's county town, has all the amenities of a large city but none of the drawbacks. It has a modern state-of-the art multiplex cinema, an internet-wired library, floodlit tennis courts, swimming pool, basketball and racquetball courts, and a number of gyms/fitness centres. It has excellent schools, a burgeoning third level Institute of Technology, and an ultra-modern hospital. Castlebar is also a shopping Mecca for the rest of Mayo with a wide range of top class shops. Entertainment and Sports Castlebar's great restaurants, pubs and hotels are ideal for a convivial meal or drink in the evenings. There is a long tradition of festivals such as the blues festival and walking festival, which make for some exciting weeks during summer with a strong international flavour. On the sporting side there are a number of very reasonably priced golf courses, a major county GAA football pitch at McHale Park and an international-standard soccer pitch. Mayo is an angler's paradise especially for salmon, trout and sea anglers. Regular concerts feature international artists from rock to classical, from blues to pop. We have a number of very popular regular nightclubs and even a Macdonald's! There's plenty to keep the kids going too - from go-karting to horse riding, from the cinema to swimming pool from music (concert band and orchestra plus traditional Irish) to drama, painting, chess and a wide range of sports. The Wide Open Spaces All of this is packed into a very compact area - nowhere in town is more than a 5-minute drive out into the beautiful rolling Mayo countryside - lakes, rivers, mountains with forests and moorland. We are only 20 minutes to the sea at Clew Bay and its ultra-clean Blue Flag beaches. The local sailing and scuba diving clubs are always looking for new members. Signposted walks such as the Mayo Way let you walk through historical landscapes with traces of neolithic times, hundreds of ringforts, the Humbert Way (1798) and remnants of famine times. A safe and secure town to live in. Those of us who have already made this jump, and moved to Castlebar from the big cities some time ago, have seen our children grow up in a safe, secure friendly environment in a community where traditional values still count and community spirit is alive and kicking. Those living in Castlebar all their lives know all this already and have welcomed newcomers with open arms over the years! Take the plunge! All in all, a well-paid, challenging job in Castlebar, one of Ireland's award winning Information Age Towns, would be hard to beat. Contact Castlebar Chamber of Commerce for further details or watch for the recruitment ads in the national and local papers. Also check out Castlebar's award-winning web domain for a flavour of Castlebar at www.castlebar.ie
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