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AMERICAN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY company Dexcom will launch its first European manufacturing site in Athenry, Galway and is expected to bring up to 1,000 jobs to the region in the next five years.
The company, which creates technology to monitor the blood glucose of people with diabetes, will invest €300 million in a new manufacturing facility on IDA-owned land.
500 construction jobs will also be created to build the site.
Dexcom have said that the plant will have the capacity to produce millions of glucose monitors annually when it is completed and will provide jobs for highly skilled graduates and technician level positions.
Fine Gael TD for Galways East Ciarán Cannon said that today was a “truly historic day” for Athenry.
It’s a truly historic day for Athenry and the West of Ireland. My sincere thanks to the powerful team @IDAIRELAND @IDAWestRegion and to Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar for their belief in Athenry, in Galway, and our people. A warm welcome to the team at Dexcom. pic.twitter.com/NwYNX6iEW3
— Ciaran Cannon (@ciarancannon) May 5, 2023
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a wonderful transformation. And that’s why we’ve seen two new state of the art thousand-pupil schools being built, we’ll shortly see a new Gael campus getting underway.”
“We’ve seen investment in wastewater, roads, and shortly seeing investment in rail. And all of these things make Athenry an incredibly attractive place to invest in,” he said.
Cannon added that the plan to open a site in Athenry came about after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and IDA executives met with Dexcom at their headquarters in San Diego, California last year.
Executive Vice President of Global Operations at Dexcom Barry Regan told Morning Ireland that Athenry was a “great” location for the company.
“I think it’s about 650,000 people that live within a 30 minute commute of where we are. We think we found a great location with lots of accessible talent and we’re partnering with all the local agencies and county councils.”
“The product we’re going to be making in Athenry is the latest generation project at Dexcom. We just launched it in December in Europe and April in the US. It’s leading edge technology. It’s the most accurate system in the world,” he said.
Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney tweeted: “1000 new jobs for Galway. Fantastic vote of confidence from Dexcom for the West!”
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Great news!
What is the current population of Athenry? Where are 1000 more people going to live?
@Michael OKelly: It’s mad the way new people arriving in Athenry can apply for jobs here.
@honey badger:
*only new people
(facepalm)
@Michael OKelly: “about 650,000 people live within a 30 minutes commute” as per the article…….
@Michael OKelly: Google “commute”.
@Mike Finnegan: Surely in the current environmental climate we shouldn’t be encouraging over 1000 people to be commuting long distances to work? Would it not make more sense to build a factory like this in a city rather than rural Ireland? This just seems like a huge factory in a small town with limited infrastructure.
@Michael OKelly:
Specious.
@Michael OKelly: would you be happier if they built it in Dublin? It’s great for rural development and maybe it will give local and their children job opportunities in their area instead of having to head towards dublin or emigrate
@Michael OKelly: If all factories, etc. only based themselves in Cities, how exactly do you think rural workers would get to work, that is the definition of a commute.
Athenry is on 2 motorways, and a train line which is soon to see further investment to increase capacity. There are already 1000′s, passing Athenry each day on these motorways commuting to Galway city. If anything, this development has the potential to decrease commute time on some that may opt to work there.
@Michael OKelly: let all spend 3 hours per day commuting to dublin with all the other…great news for the west
@Michael OKelly: Athenry is probably the best connected small town in Ireland. It has long be earmarked by the IDA as a future centre for development.
Athenry is
- 20 Minutes from Galway city
- 35 Minutes from Athlone
- 25 Minutes from Tuam
- 45 Minutes from Limerick
Those are not serious commuting distances.
Great positive news for Athenry after the Apple DC debacle.
SF will pull the magic houses out of their Magic Hat in time, don’t worry!
@Paul: It’s great SF is being blamed for the last 100yrs of failures.
@Shaun Gallagher: 100 years of terrorists
@Dave Connolly: Shouldn’t you be getting all the bunting ready for tomorrow ?
AtHenry has come a long way since Lord Trevelyan’s day
Great to see good quality jobs go to a rural area. I’m sure the locals are delighted. This will be a great financially boost for the area, and I’m sure plenty of locals will take jobs there.
Good news, how many people are they actually hiring? The article doesn’t say.
@Jules: The Twitter video implies about 1000 jobs in the longer term.
@John Murphy: indeed, but it is IDA spin, the actual number of jobs offered is not reported.
It’s amazing how people can twist this into a negative.
@Keith Lenihan: Only the twisted people!!
Another Tax Dodge
LOWWWWWWWW, HIGH, THE FIELDS OF ATHENRY.
Does anyone know where the local cows can be found in the area?
have your say