Pharmaceutical jobs - Encouraging proposals

IN a week when we heard unemployment has reached 14.6%, the highest figure in 17 years, any announcement about creating jobs is very, very welcome.

Yesterday’s news, that almost 300 jobs will be provided by three pharmaceutical firms in Kerry, falls into that category. Those jobs, primarily in research and development, will come on stream over the next year or so. They could be the first in a €4.7 billion Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence (GPCE) project in Tralee which, if all goes according to plan, could support 4,500 jobs within four years.

This is a prize worth pursuing and though there must be a degree of caution about all of these announcements the opposite is also true. They deserve optimistic support and anything that can be done to facilitate this project must be considered and encouraged. These jobs would be a perfect fit for our ambitions and may prove another good reason to defend our corporate tax rate tooth and nail.