Some 81 new jobs have been announced for Co Cavan.

Lakeland Dairies Co-op is investing €36m in expanding its milk powder processing operations at Bailieboro, and will take on the new staff over the next five years.

While 180 construction jobs will also be created during the development of the new facilities, with construction starting immediately.

The investment has been supported by the Department of Jobs through Enterprise Ireland.

Welcoming the announcement, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said: "The removal of milk quotas later this year offers huge opportunities that we intend to exploit in a planned and strategic way in order to support jobs growth across every region in Ireland."

"Investment by Irish businesses like Lakeland Dairies is more likely to be in rural areas, and has a massive knock-on impact on the local economy, through construction, supply and service businesses," he added.

Lakeland Dairies processes over 800 million litres of farm produced milk annually into a wide range of value-added dairy products and food ingredients, which it exports to over 70 countries worldwide.

Following the abolition of milk quotas later this year, annual milk supply to Lakeland Dairies is expected to increase by some 40% to over one billion litres by 2020.

It comes as new figures show Ireland's dairy comsuption has fallen, with domestic milk intake down 17.1% in December.