THE newly appointed Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation says that her Department, Enterprise Ireland and the IDA are doing their “very best” to get somebody else to take over the Co Clare plant.
Speaking in Limerick following the opening of a new storage facility at supply chain experts ‘Exertis’, Mary Mitchell O’Connor said that the “IDA are back on track to find a new buyer for the facility and that “we will do everything to get that across the line.
The Minister made her comments after it was announced earlier this week that almost 200 jobs are to be lost as a result of the pull out from Clarecastle of Roche Pharmaceuticals.
Last November, Roche said that it was closing the facility as part of a worldwide restructuring of the group.
This Tuesday, management said that “negotiations for the transfer of the Clarecastle manufacturing site to a global pharma services company have ended without an agreement.”
Based in County Clare since 1974, Roche will now enter formal discussions with their employees.
“Therefore production at Clarecastle will cease in a phased approach currently estimated to be completed between 2018 and 2019 when Roche will exit the site”.
This Thursday, Minister Mitchell O’Connor said that although 125 jobs are to be lost immediately, “I want to assure the workers that we are doing our best to get somebody else in.”
The Fine Gael TD for Galway was in Limerick to open a new State of the Art facility at Exertis, a supply chain services provider for the region with customers such as Regeneron.
Describing herself as the ‘shiny new Minister, Mary Mitchell O’Connor said that this was a “good news story” for the region as the company opened its new GMP warehouse at the Raheen Industrial Estate.
The company spent €2m over a nine month period to ready the facility to deliver a Good Management Practice controlled logistics facility.
The facility will be capable of handling 4,000 pallets of specialised products in temperature and humidity controlled environs.
The overhaul has secured 20 new jobs for the company.
