SPECULATION is mounting that US biotechnology giant Amgen has finally abandoned its plans to create 1,100 jobs at a plant in Co Cork and instead has decided to launch its European operations with a takeover of Pfizer’s factory in Dun Laoghaire.

FURIOUS Cork county councillors have demanded that Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin and his junior Michael Ahern come to County Hall and explain what went wrong with the €1 billion Amgen project and, equally importantly, when exactly they knew it was axed.

THE two Cork-based ministers in charge of state enterprise policy flatly denied yesterday that they had prior knowledge of Amgen’s decision not to proceed with plans to locate in Ireland.

IRELAND has beaten off stiff competition from Switzerland and Singapore to secure 1,100 bio-pharma jobs in a €0.82 billion plant to be built by US firm Amgen in Carrigtwohill, County Cork.