Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_07_01/GA_0107_E1_008.pdf 

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8 N E W S

Galway Advertiser

July 1 2004

Galway's spirit is key to 230 new jobs at Merit
BY ANDREW HAMILTON Galway has received a huge jobs boost this week with the announcement of more than 230 new positions at Merit Medical Systems in the Parkmore Business Park over the next five years. These jobs, the first of which will come on line in October, will be in the research and d e v e l o p m e n t , engineering, quality control, planning, procurement and manufacturing areas. The Utah-based company, which develops and manufactures medical products for use in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, will invest 9.3 million in its Galway site, with additional funding being made available by the IDA. The development will see the creation of a centre of excellence and will more than double the factory size to 67,000 sq ft. The IDA's Western Region Manager, Jim Murren was tight lipped about the amount of funding put forward by the Government but did stress that the level of support given would be directly linked to the amount of jobs created. Construction is already underway on the new development which will see almost one third of Merit's global workforce being located in Galway. Up to 30 per cent of the new jobs will be in the highly skilled research and development, and engineering fields and will be aimed at university graduates. Merit's president Fred Lampropoulos, who earlier this year ran unsuccessfully for governorship of Utah, recognised the hard work and fighting spirit of their Galway workforce and gave much of the credit for the company's success to the Galway plant's managing director Mark Butler. Merit has recently been ranked as America's 10th fastest growing company by Fortune Magazine. "We are the underdogs, and the fact of the matter is that Merit has proven, and certainly our Irish employees have proven, that if you set your mind to something you will eventually have a good outcome," said Mr Lampropoulos. "As a small company we have been able to almost triple our size since we came here [to Galway] and most of the credit must go to Mark Butler and his staff here in Galway." Mr Lampropoulos, who hinted at the possibility of further Galway expansions in the future, also paid tribute to the city's highly skilled and trained workforce as well as the assistance offered by the IDA. "The capital assistance, the training, and the grants for research and development that helped us to build the centre of excellence were the key issues [in coming to Galway] for us and will continue to be," he said. The announcement was warmly welcomed by An Taniste Mary Harney who described it as a significant endorsement of the work being done in Galway. "It will increase Merit's already important contribution to Galway and surrounding area through the new employment and its increased spending in the economy. This investment

Fred Lampropoulos (right) chairman and CEO of Merit Medical announcing 250 new jobs by Merit Medical Irl Ltd at Parkmore Industrial Estate on Tuesday . Also in the photo are Mark Butler MD Merit Medical Irl Ltd and Leigh Weintraub chief operating officer Merit Medical. Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy

will further enhance the reputation of the region as a `cluster' location for global medical technology

companies," she said. Merit was established in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1987 and has

manufacturing facilities across America and in Jordan. The company came to Galway in 1996

and currently employs 179 people in Parkmore.

Twelve operations carried out on first day as Galway Clinic opens for business
BY MARY O'CONNOR The state-of-the-art 100 million Galway Clinic which opened for admissions on Tuesday expects to be working to its full capacity by late autumn. The 124 bed private hospital - which is located at Doughiska and which will be officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on Friday September 17 - carried out 12 operations on Wednesday. Mr James Sheehan, the Dublin based consultant orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered the project, said a "general mix of patients" were admitted to the facility - which provides cancer care, neurological and stroke services as well as cardiac surgery - on the day it opened. The clinic, which is being hailed as one of the finest hospitals in Europe, currently employs 70 staff but this will increase to 400 when it is fully operational. The opening of the facility represents a major achievement for Mr Sheehan, one of the founders of Dublin's Blackrock Clinic, who overcame a number of teething problems when the project was in its infancy. He says radiotherapy treatment for cancer patients will be available at the clinic within weeks making the facility the first in the west providing this life saving service. "All the planning has been completed and the service will be up and running in a few weeks time. We are waiting for validation, an independent person is coming from Dublin to sign off our data from a physics point of view." The VHI provides cover for its members at the new hospital, the State's other health provider BUPA is not on board yet. The clinic hopes to make at least 20 per cent of its beds available to public patients. It hopes to carry out a lot of Treatment Purchase Fund [the Government initiative designed to reduce waiting lists for public patients] work. "The Treatment Purchase Fund has passed the hospital and are agreeing rates now. We will be up and running for that work shortly." Welcoming the opening of the new private clinic, Minister for Labour Affairs Frank Fahey said it will take the pressure off UCHG and Merlin Park hospitals. "I am delighted to see that after such difficulties with planning permission this long awaited event is finally taking place. It is fantastic that the finest and most modern medical facilities and procedures will now be available in Galway and I congratulate Mr Jimmy Sheehan and all those involved in this project for their sterling work in this regard. "The fact that 20 per cent of beds will be available for public patients is a welcome consequence if this development and will certainly take the pressure off Merlin Park and UCHG in dealing with such an amount of patients from Galway, Mayo and Roscommon."

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