merrion street

Tesco Ireland today announced a €120 million investment programme which is creating 757 new jobs across the country.  Construction work on the various projects will also support another 548 building jobs.  The investment programme extends until summer 2012.

The retailer will open four new supermarkets, as well seven Express stores in Dublin.  The new stores to be opened in the coming months, creating 522 new jobs, are at Cabra, Dublin (150), Kildare (120), Rush, Dublin (80) with a replacement store underway in Roscrea, Tipperary (60) which was originally planned for last year.  There will also be seven new Tesco Express stores in Dublin and Meath, creating 16 jobs each.  An extensive upgrading programme for many existing Tesco stores around the country is also underway.

Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton who attended the launch today, welcomed the announcement and said:

This government’s number one priority – and mine – is job creation, and we make no apologies for that. Today’s fantastic announcement shows that despite the serious difficulties there are great opportunities in retail. While we must take account of the various interests involved, I am determined that we must do everything we can to maximise the potential for expansion and job-creation in this sector. Today’s news shows that we are on the right track but we must do more.

I have said repeatedly that Government does not create jobs, but the decisions they take can create an environment where entrepreneurs and growing business can create jobs. Reducing costs, providing new lines of credit and driving the innovation and R&D agenda are core to my plan to create that job-friendly environment. We have made some progress to date on this front but have much more to do so that we can see more announcements like the very positive news from Tesco today.