Schneider Electric, the French electrical manufacture, announced today it has launched a €750m bond expiring in 2008 to reimburse its debt maturing in 2004 including a €1bn bond maturing in April.

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC has filled 400 of the 600 manufacturing jobs it is creating in Galway, the company said yesterday.

I HEARD with dismay last Wednesday about the loss of 385 jobs at the Square D factory in my home town of Ballinasloe.

The Labour Party leader is accusing the Government of sleepwalking the country into recession.

PFIZER, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, is to create 200 new jobs in Dublin by the end of 2005 with the opening of its new European financial services centre.