WATCH: Recruitment underway for jobs at 'special' Adare Manor

THE JP McManus-owned Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort has already begun recruitment for more than 300 new positions at the five star facility, with a host of positions on offer.

The resort – currently undergoing a multi-million euro renovation and upgrading – announced this Monday that it was “pleased to announce 300 new direct jobs, bringing the number of personnel employed to over 350 people” including management positions.

Mr McManus attended the announcement and was joined by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor, as well as special guests former champion jockey AP McCoy, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Patrick O’Donovan and local TDs and councillors.

“Hopefully it’ll be done to the standards that everybody is expecting. From what I see, I’m very pleased with the way things are going, and hopefully it’ll be all systems go towards the end of the year,” said Mr McManus of the resort he purchased in 2014 for a fee thought to be around €30m. He is spending many multiples of that on its extensive refurbishment.

Jobs minister Ms Mitchell O’Connor said: “The creation of 300 new jobs, following on from the over 600 construction jobs during the refurbishment works, is a huge boost for county Limerick and the wider Mid-West region.

“It’s also great to see the Adare Manor Resort being redeveloped, given the importance and benefit of tourism to the region. Heartiest congratulations to all concerned,” she added.

JP McManus, Sue Ann Foley, Minister Mary Mitchell-O'Connor & Colm Hannon at today's announcement of 300 new jobs: https://t.co/hOSxB0Qfia pic.twitter.com/XL11RzCfQ9

— Adare Manor Hotel (@TheAdareManor) March 6, 2017

Colm Hannon, Adare Manor CEO, said there had been "overwhelming interest from all over the world in the major renovation and construction works taking place at Adare Manor over the past 12 months.

"A considerable amount of Irish people working overseas wishing to return to Ireland have expressed interest in positions at the resort. We are delighted to be able to confirm today that we are ready to take applications from suitably qualified personnel to fill these all of these 300 new positions, and would encourage individuals to submit their applications," he said.

Mr McManus also spoke for the first time about his hopes to host the 2026 Ryder Cup at the new state-of-the-art Adare course.

“There’s a lot of competition for something like that, we’d only hope that our name would be in the hat, and I think we have the venue, I think we have the facilities, but it’ll need a lot of support apart from that to get something like the Ryder Cup,” he said.

“I think for any Limerick person, Adare is very, very special. I hope we can do the place justice and bring it back to some of its former splendour, and it appears to be on time, so hopefully it’ll open on schedule and it won’t disappoint,” added Mr McManus, which is on schedule to open in the last quarter of the year.