Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

There is an ongoing early warning system in the Department but that is dependent on information from the companies themselves. We maintain contact with the companies but corporate headquarters do not always tell people lower down the hierarchy of a business about the decision they are soon to announce. Amgen made an announcement in April. The Amgen personnel travelled especially to Ireland to meet and communicate its decision which at that stage was to stagger the project out to 2012. Many people thought this made sense because of the extraordinary rapidity of the project, with construction timelines and so on, which was even faster than the Johnson & Johnson project in Ringaskiddy. The Amgen personnel raised some of the points made by Deputy Stanton, such as the falling share price and they reassured me that this was something they could deal with as it was a cash rich company and it was definitely going ahead with the project.

Deputy Stanton may not have been in the House when I stated that the executive vice-president said to me: "Do you honestly think that we would have proceeded post April to continue to plough resources into the company; to continue to employ people and pay salaries and to continue to employ people to design the plant if we were not going ahead with it or if we were postponing it indefinitely?" It was obviously a fluid situation. The company was committed to the plant but the situation has not improved for it in the interim with the difficulties with the FDA and so on. It is fair to say that all companies in this area go though periods of volatility; as we know from other companies, the sector is prone tothat.

On the question of the grant, there is no issue with the company on any of the matters. The company has been upfront and our strategy would be to keep the door open. I will say no more than that or I will raise expectations. There are clear legal obligations. It is only a month since the company made its announcement and indicated that it wanted to hold on to the site.

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