Martin and Ahern deny they knew of Amgen U-turn

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.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin and the Minister of State for Innovation Policy Micheál Ahern insisted yesterday that they first learned on Tuesday that the American biotechnology giant had aborted its plan to create up to 1,100 jobs in the east Cork town of Carrigtwohill, Mr Ahern’s political base.

Mr Ahern’s constituency FF colleague Ned O’Keeffe suggested to the Irish Examiner this week that his constituents were “misled” about Amgen’s plans and said it was obvious for two years that the American multinational would not be locating in Ireland.

The outspoken backbencher’s comments were seized on by the opposition yesterday with some suggesting it was Fianna Fáil repeating the tactic of ‘Golden Thursday’ from the 2002 election.

Five years ago, weeks before polling day, the Government, in the course of a single day, announced the creation of up to 1,400 jobs, some of which never materialised. Fianna Fáil were yesterday accused of repeating the exercise by not revealing that Amgen had put the whole project on the back burner. But both Mr Martin and Mr Ahern rejected this assertion categorically.

The Enterprise Minister said that the first he learned of it was on Wednesday morning, during a conference call involving his department, the IDA and Amgen.

“The decision was made on a review of its own operations following on from a substantial drop in its own share price,” Mr Martin told the Dáil.

He said he would be meeting with Amgen within the next fortnight.

Mr Ahern told the Irish Examiner that the advice he had been given by the IDA and the department up until this week was that the project was proceeding. He said that neither he nor Mr Martin had used it as a cynical tool.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore raised the matter in the Order of Business, while local deputies David Stanton (FG) and Sean Sherlock (Lab) both weighed in during the adjournment debate.

Mr Gilmore suggested there was a cover-up.

Tánaiste and Finance Minister Brian Cowen responded: “To prevent other unfounded rumours circulating here, I note that the Minister for Enterprise was informed for the first time on October 3 that the Amgen project in east Cork would be postponed indefinitely.”

In angry exchanges in the Dáil, Mr Stanton bitterly complained that only two and a half minutes was allocated to a debate over what he portrayed as a disaster.

Mr Sherlock, for his part, was also highly critical and questioned the deal about the ownership of the site.

A spokesperson for the IDA confirmed that Amgen would assess its contractual obligation to Government and the IDA, and would return sums received from the agency.