Alps Electric is to invest UKPIr5.6m in a new plant in County Cork, Ireland. Based in a unit formerly owned by Apple Computer Ltd the new company will manufacture computer peripherals including keyboards, graphic input devices and disk drives for export throughout Europe. Production should be under way by July of this year and it is estimated that 100 jobs will be created by the first year of operation, leading to a total of 160 jobs over a five year period. Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority also announced that Claris Corp, the software spin-out from Apple Computer Inc, is to establish its European and international operational headquarters in Dublin. The plant, which involves a capital investment by Claris of UKPIr700,000, will manufacture and distribute software to European and other markets from July. And Microsoft says that is to spend UKPIr1.5m expanding its Dublin plant. The expansion means that Dublin will take responsibility for the translation of US software for the European market, making the Irish facility the core of Microsoft’s European operations.