By Business & Finance 
Business & Finance brings you the day’s Irish business news in brief.
Friday, September 23rd 2016
Alter Pharma today officially inaugurated its new headquarters for its worldwide operations in Balbriggan, Co Dublin. The company also announced its plans to add 80 new jobs bringing total employment onsite to 120 by 2018.
Founded in 2010, Alter Pharma has five companies based in Ireland and the company is currently recruiting a number of positions, in all areas including research and development, regulatory, supply chain, warehouse, and quality.
CEO Pieter Van Rompay said: “Opening our new €5m facility underlines our commitment to Ireland and will allow for our rapid expansion plans. We look forward to continuing to grow our excellent team here to complement our product portfolio.”
More than 2,000 event professionals, including international event, corporate, agency and association delegations from Canada, France, Germany, North America, the United Kingdom and other European locations, will attend Ireland’s first and only dedicated business tourism showcase, Connect16, at the RDS next September 28th.
A key focus of the inaugural Connect16 showcase will be how we best leverage the intellectual capital we have around Ireland to attract international conferences to our shores.
This includes looking at the supports that are currently available through Fáilte Ireland and professional conference organisers to help successfully bid to bring international congresses to our shores.
Data breach at Yahoo causes consternation
Yahoo has confirmed a large-scale data breach of their systems in 2014, and that the 500 million user records have been lost over 18 months. 200 million records have been offered for sale since August, and may have come from a previous data breach.
The breach is thought to be the biggest publicly disclosed data breach in history. Yahoo said the attack happened in 2014, with personal information, unencrypted security questions and answers and encrypted passwords stolen.
The release is likely to increase the use of the stolen credentials for other online services, or where a similar password has been used.
Search for Ireland’s best young entrepreneur continues
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor has urged young entrepreneurs to apply for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE).
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) is an initiative of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland, and is run by the 31 LEOs across the country.
Each LEO has an investment fund of up to €50,000 to award to young entrepreneurs across three categories locally – Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best Established Business.
Ireland has cut 0.5pc off its growth forecast for this year and next ahead of next month’s budget.
The recent Brexit has left Ireland especially vulnerable to the after effects, even though the export-focused Irish economy has staged a strong recovery. However, according to Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes, an increased contribution by Ireland to the EU budget, due to the surge in 2015 gross domestic product figures, is “highly unlikely”.
The Packaging Hub’s has announced a new manufacturing facility and healthcare logistics centre in Waterford. As a result of the new facility, The Packaging Hub will create 40 jobs in Waterford by 2018.
The Packaging Hub is a packaging, supply chain and logistics solution company, delivering in-market packaging solutions which include a full suite of packaging design and manufacture, as well as supply chain and JIT logistics services.
A business park that will cost more than is being planned by developer Michael Howard at a site near Dublin Airport.
Thirteen grade A office blocks are due to be built on a huge site beside the M50. It’s expected that the campus could eventually see up to. 8,500 people to be employed at the site once complete.
One building in that first phase will have 7,404 sq m of floorspace, while the other two will each have 8,283 sq m. The business park will include a park and a running track.
The closing date for applications for the upcoming eir Elevation Awards, taking place in The Marker Hotel on November 4th, has been extended to September 28th.
Launched in 2015, the eir Elevation Awards recognise the growth and ingenuity of Ireland’s fastest growing businesses.
With a spotlight on innovation, international scalability, differentiation and strategic investment in the Irish economy, the awards celebrate the specific reasons for the success of Ireland’s fastest growing companies.
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