The 24 member companies of Geoscience Ireland (GI) have created 42 new jobs between them in the six months since July 1, 2015, according to GI's twice yearly survey of its members. Tunnelling and drilling contractors reported the strongest growth, with many engineering and environmental consultancies also reporting increased numbers. These figures bring to almost 300 the number of net new jobs created by Geoscience Ireland (GI) member companies since September 2012. The network of GI companies have agreed a target of a further 150 new jobs by 2017. Joe McHugh, Minster for Natural Resources, said: "The member companies of Geoscience Ireland continue to surpass their job creation targets, providing well paid and sustainable jobs for designers, surveyors, scientists, engineers and highly skilled trades across a range of sectors. The Geoscience Ireland (GI) initiative is an excellent example of co-operation between a number of state agencies and departments, the private sector and applied research." The GI Network aligns closely with the National Clustering Initiative as outlined in the Action Plan for Jobs, which supports enterprise-led initiatives to build world-class clusters in key sectors, such as agri-food, engineering, ICT and life sciences, and will support clusters of scale that can drive innovation, collaboration, productivity and resilience. The clustering approach will invite industry, research institutions and other relevant stakeholders to collaboratively engage in identifying challenges and developing solutions. The job creation by Geoscience Ireland (GI) companies has a strong regional footprint, as more than 40 per cent of GI members are based outside Dublin. The GI network now totals 26 companies, has added two new companies in January, bringing the total number employed to more than 1,600." About Geoscience Ireland (GI) GI was established by the Geological  Survey of Ireland (Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources) and Enterprise Ireland in 2012 to support Irish companies in winning work in international markets for mineral exploration, mining, infrastructure development , water services and capacity building. GI now has 26 member companies, up from 24 in 2015. Between them, the 26 companies employ more than 1,600 people and collective turnover exceeds €300 million per annum. Approximately 60 per cent of this is derived from overseas work. Further information see www.geoscience.ie