Mayor convinced pharmaceutical jobs will go ahead

THE Mayor of County Cork said yesterday he was convinced biopharmaceutical giant Amgen will proceed with its plans to create 1,100 jobs in Carrigtwohill.

Mayor John O’Shea (FG) has just returned from the US where he met with senior Amgen management at their headquarters in Redwood, California.

Mr O’Shea said he spoke with management for two-and-a-half hours and they explained to him why the proposed €820 million project had been put back two years, to 2012.

“They had a hiccup with one of their major products earlier in the year and their share price dropped. But the price is increasing again. They are now thinking of Carrigtwohill for multi-production, instead of it being for just one product, which is good news because the pharmaceutical industry is very volatile,” Mr O’Shea said.

“I believe what I was told and I’ve no reason not to,” he said yesterday.

“This county and this region is depending on companies like Amgen. The last thing we need is people jumping on the rooftops saying they won’t come.”

County manager Martin Riordan, said he also met with Amgen management and felt that they were very open about their plans.

He said that Amgen “didn’t come across as a secretive organisation” and took their management at their word.

“We will continue to have meetings with Amgen to progress their planning application. I fully expect they will arrive,” Mr Riordan said.

Both men made their comments after a number of councillors spoke of their fears that the project could be lost from the area.

Cllr John Mulvihill (Lab) said negative rumours were flying around Cork and he wanted answers.

“There are a lot of people talking about it. Since the announcement of the delay, Minister Micheal Martin’s silence has been deafening,” Mr Mulvihill said.

FG’s Cllr Michael Creed called on Mr Martin to make an immediate statement on the issue “to quash rumours once and for all”.

His party colleague, Gerry Kelly, also expressed his concern about the rumours and said that job seekers from all over the county were watching the story.

The debate also focussed on a reply the council had received from the IDA about job creation in east Cork.

A number of public representatives said they were not happy with the response, especially as the IDA seemed to think finding Amgen was the solution to the region’s needs.

Cllr Martin Hallinan (SF) said Youghal and Cobh had suffered in particular in recent years from job losses.

“I welcome Amgen, but we can’t just depend solely on multinationals,” he said.

Cllr Barbara Murray felt that the IDA had lost interest in east Cork and it might be a good idea if the local authority tried to take up the slack by developing and promoting its own industrial parks.