AS almost 800 of Ireland’s 5,000 Pfizer employees contemplate being forced on to the dole queue, the company’s head of Irish operations has warned Ireland cannot continue to be the most expensive environment in which the pharmaceutical company is operating.

THE largest US telephone-equipment maker, Lucent Technologies Inc, had first-quarter net income of $338 million as sales rose for the first time in more than three years on demand for wireless-network gear.