Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

There is an element of playing politics. The Government does not represent Amgen. I do not sit in on meetings at the corporate headquarters of global companies. Those who run such companies, not the Los Angeles Times or any other newspaper, make decisions. The executive vice-president of the company put it very well last week when he asked if I honestly thought that if the management previously knew what it knows now, the company would have proceeded with the decision it took in April to carry out the project on a staggered basis to 2012. He also inquired if I thought the company would have pumped more funding into the project, which it did. Up to the day on which the closure was announced, up to 80 people were employed on the project.

The project was the subject of two comprehensive planning applications. Given the scale and detail involved, these were expensive. One need only visit Wyeth's operations at Grange Castle to obtain some insight into the scale of the project. Such a project cannot be done under cover; it would not be a case of someone shouting "Hey presto" and a major biopharma operation suddenly appearing without anybody noticing. It has been suggested we should have announced the project differently. The planning application which was substantial in nature had to be made.

The company is extremely unhappy about the position in which it now finds itself. The decision not to proceed clearly has a great deal to do with the situation that obtains in respect of two of its major drugs, particularly in the context of reimbursement policies within the United States. However, companies in the pharmaceuticals and biopharma sector experience rough periods and then emerge from them. The terminology used by the company in respect of the project is "indefinitely postponed". It made clear to us last week that it wanted to retain the site. Our strategy, therefore, is to work with the company to see if it can overcome the difficulties it is experiencing. We will then see what emerges.

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