A subsidiary of a Japanese IT company which was established in Tralee, Co Kerry, in 2011 has announced that it is to double its workforce to 200 over the next five years.

JRI America is part of the giant Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Its technology centre based in Tralee supports the group's western operations in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

With support from IDA Ireland, JRI America is to create a security operations centre in Tralee to oversee security event and incident monitoring, threat vulnerability analysis and management, as well as network and systems security.

The security operations centre in Tralee will share responsibility with a second centre in Japan for monitoring, assessing, mitigating and investigating cybersecurity threats and incidents within the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

Recruitment has already begun to hire 25 people for positions in the security operations centre in Tralee.

Another 75 people will be hired for JRI's existing operations in Tralee, including quality assurance and testing, and networking, infrastructure and data centre roles.

IDA Ireland Chief Executive Martin Shanahan said JRI's expansion will be of substantial benefit to the local and regional economy.

He said the expansion supported the IDA's strategy of securing investments for regional locations.

Junior Minister for Tourism Brendan Griffin, who attended a function with JRI executives in Tralee today, said the expansion would strengthen and diversify the economy of Kerry.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is part of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. They already employ 300 staff in five operations in Ireland.