Schering Plough expected to announce 240 lay-offs at Irish plants

The US pharmaceutical firm Schering Plough is expected to announce up to 240 lay-offs at its three plants in Ireland today.

The company, which made a loss of €735m last year, is due to brief staff about the redundancies this afternoon.

Schering Plough has operations in Brinny, Co Cork, and in Bray and Rathdrum in Co Wicklow.

Employees at the Brinny plant fear they will be worst-hit by any plans to reduce the firm's Irish workforce.