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New fast landing service to provide collaborative work environment
Sligo, November 30th 2018. IDA Ireland, in partnership with IT Sligo and Sligo County Council, have today officially opened a new fast landing property solution. The establishment of IDA Ireland’s first fast landing service at Embankment House, Sligo, to be known as ‘The Landing Space’, will provide an open plan, turnkey collaborative working environment for companies who wish to quickly and easily establish operations in the North West region. It is the latest strategic initiative by IDA Ireland to increase investments in regional locations by enhancing and highlighting the specific property attributes of individual regional urban centres.
Sligo is home to leading life science companies such as Phibro, Abbvie and Abbott as well as tech companies LiveTiles, Overstock and E3 Retail. These international brands help attract additional overseas companies to potentially locate to the Sligo area.
Attending today’s launch, Minister of State for Natural Resources, Community Affairs and Digital Development Seán Canney said: “Sligo has benefitted greatly in recent months from the arrival of global companies like Phibro, LiveTiles and E3 Retail. It’s proof that everything that global companies require to establish and scale up their operations can be found here – such as talent, services and infrastructure. The addition of this new fast landing space is another strong attractor, adding greatly to what Sligo has to offer. I congratulate all involved in developing this space. All of these developments also add to the work of the Atlantic Economic Corridor strategy as set out in the National Development Plan.”
IDA Ireland’s Executive Director Mary Buckley said: “This top quality, turn-key property adds significantly to the value proposition we can offer clients and will greatly assist our efforts to attract inward investment to Sligo. The collaborative work of all local stakeholders represented here today, including IT Sligo and Sligo County Council, is really important and demonstrates that creating an attractive location for investment benefits greatly from a team approach.”
The availability of skilled workers and graduates in Sligo to service the North West’s growing international client base has greatly benefitted the region. Commenting at the launch Dr. Brendan McCormack, President of IT Sligo said: “IT Sligo is delighted to be partnering with the IDA and Sligo County Council in providing this new facility for Sligo-based companies. This initiative will add to our on-campus incubation facility offering, which currently houses over 30 companies, allowing us to build on our extensive suite of enterprise and entrepreneur supports. These new office facilities will provide a soft-landing base for companies establishing a permanent presence in Sligo”
The location of Sligo as a destination for people in search of challenging careers and a positive work-life balance is well acknowledged as Ciaran Hayes, CEO, Sligo County Council said: “The availability of a fast Landing Space in the heart of Sligo contributes to a much sought after quality of life where you can avail of 1 Gigabit broadband connection in an attractive urban centre, yet be only 10 minutes from surfing the Wild Atlantic Way or availing of the many mountain or coastal walks in the land of hearts desire.”
Gigabit Hub at the Landing Space
Siro and Vodafone are supporting The Landing Space with the provision of Gigabit connectivity, the most powerful broadband available in Ireland, as it becomes the latest participant in Vodafone and SIRO’s national Gigabit Hub Initiative, which offers a 1 Gigabit (1,000 Mbps or Megabits per second) broadband connection to qualifying business hubs in regional towns. Companies based in The Landing Space will benefit from the same level of broadband connectivity as available in leading international hubs such in locations like Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Speaking at the launch, Vodafone’s Enterprise Director, Regina Moran said: “I’m delighted to announce today that, through the SIRO Vodafone partnership, we have reached yet another significant milestone in terms of providing connectivity to regional areas of Ireland.
“The Gigabit Hub initiative is providing vital infrastructure at pace across the country and in doing so is helping to promote regional parts of Ireland as destinations for international business. These hubs will create employment opportunities for the people of Sligo and surrounding communities and help to stimulate the local economy. We very much look forward to seeing the ambition we established two years ago support the local people and businesses in Sligo in the most tangible way, as they look to compete irrespective of location.”
SIRO CEO John Keaney added: “The Landing Space is the latest example of how SIRO is reversing the digital divide in Ireland by giving Sligo the same level of world class broadband connectivity as Tokyo and Hong Kong. Doing business online is fundamental for every business today, from start-ups, SMEs to large multinationals. Our 1 Gigabit service is now available to 200,000 homes and businesses around Ireland and clients of Landing Space companies won’t be able to tell the difference whether they are based on the West Coast of the United States or the West Coast of Ireland when they log on. As a result, when the next Google or Microsoft decides to open an office in Ireland, Sligo will be as appealing as Dublin.”
For media queries please contact:
Ellen Lynch
Regional Communications, Press & PR Executive
IDA Ireland
087 4112084
ellen.lynch@ida.ie
Notes to editors
About Vodafone Ireland
Vodafone is Ireland's leading total communications provider with 2.3 million customers and employs over 2,000 people directly and indirectly in Ireland.
Vodafone provides a total range of communications solutions including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications to consumers and to small, medium and large businesses. Since 2011, Vodafone has expanded its enterprise division, offering integrated next-generation fixed and mobile solutions in addition to cloud-based platforms, machine to machine services and professional ICT support.
Vodafone Group is one of the world's leading international mobile communications groups with mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 55 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.ie
About SIRO
SIRO is a joint venture of ESB and Vodafone which is investing €450 million in building Ireland’s first 100% Fibre-to-the-Building broadband network. Using the existing ESB network, SIRO delivers fibre optic cables all the way to the building. This technology, known as Fibre-to-the-Building, has no copper connections at any point to slow down the network and delivers 1 Gigabit speeds.
The wholesale broadband operator’s network is now live in 30 towns across the country, with 10 retailers offering connections to over 200,000 homes and businesses. SIRO is offered on an open-access basis to all telecoms retailers in Ireland. SIRO has formed partnerships with 10 operators – Vodafone, Digiweb, Sky, BT, Carnsore Broadband, Rocket Broadband, Kerry Broadband, eNet, Airwire and WestNet – with more retailers expected to come on board as the company drives competition in the wholesale broadband market.