On 27th February 2013, Ecocem’s new plant was officially opened by Brian Hayes, Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works.
A huge crowd gathered at the plant in Dublin Port to join Ecocem for the opening, tea, coffee and pastries which were provided by The Fair Play Café, Ringsend with all the proceeds going towards their initiative ‘Share Your Lunch’.
On the day, Ecocem also announced its plans to create 61 jobs (direct and indirect) as part of a new three year, €19 million investment programme. The new plant will be used to bag Ecocem’s eco-friendly cement, which among other things reduces the carbon footprint of traditional cement by up to 60%. Ecocem Next Generation Cement is now the highest quality, lowest carbon cement product produced in Ireland.
Brian Hayes, Minister of State, said during the opening of the plant “I am delighted to be here today to share this good news story. The creation of 25 direct jobs and an estimated 36 indirect jobs in this new Ecocem cement bagging plant. Ecocem are one of Ireland’s success stories, being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Irish company Ecocem Materials founded in 2000 by Donal O’Riain. The company manufactures environmentally friendly cement, which facilitates sustainable design and construction, and is central to the Government’s Green Public Procurement Policy for Construction, currently being developed by my office, the OPW. In the current economic climate, it is heartening to see Ecocem make an investment of €5million, with a further €14million planned over the next 3 years.”
By Jason Mc Donnell
