European News

17, May 2012.

The Rehab Group announced today that it plans to recruit 750 staff in its operations over the next three years, with over 400 of those to be based in Ireland.

It currently employs over 3,500 people, with 2,500 staff based in Ireland and another 1,000 in the UK, Poland and the Netherlands.

The new posts arise in the areas of training, education, health and social care, IT, sales and marketing, management and administration, it said.

Commenting on the announcement Angela Kerins, Chief Executive, said that Rehab has a significant growth strategy for 2012 to 2015 in all of its areas of activity. “We are currently looking further afield at new opportunities and hope to have some important new developments to announce later this year.”

“Rehab Group provides health, social care, education and training services to 56,000 people in four EU member states and we aim to grow this to supporting 75,000 people by 2015. Our services are recognised internationally, and have proven results. For example, 90pc of people who complete our training courses here in Ireland go on to further education, training or employment. Our overriding objective is to improve the lives of the people we support and to provide sustainable employment for our staff, both with and without disabilities,” he said.

“Most people are familiar with Rehab Group as a provider of services to people with disabilities and others who are marginalised in their communities, but may not be aware that in addition to our health and education services in Ireland and the UK, we run a number of businesses in each of the four countries in which we work. For example, Rehab is Ireland’s largest processor of glass for recycling, exporting nearly 100,000 tonnes of glass per year. We also operate a resource recovery business in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands and an international logistics business in Poland and the Netherlands, as well as a retail business and significant gaming and lottery interests. While like everyone else we experience difficulties in some markets, overall we have a positive view of our future development and believe that this can be achieved with hard work, a ‘can-do’ attitude and a little adventure into new areas.”

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said: “A central part of our plan for jobs and growth is creating a powerful engine of indigenous enterprise. Yes we must continue to attract world-class multinational companies, but we must also ensure that we have more Irish companies growing to scale, competing and succeeding in world markets, and creating more jobs.”

“Rehab is an Irish organisation which had success in its original field, branched out into new sectors, competed and succeeded in export markets and created large-scale employment. Today’s announcement that it is to create 750 new jobs over the next three years is very welcome. I am determined that, through continued implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs, we can see more Irish companies replicate this success and drive the sustainable jobs recovery that we need.”