Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I received a letter from BD, or Becton, Dickinson and Company, which is a global medtech company with an operation in Drogheda. I believe this issue was raised with the Taoiseach earlier. Deputy Munster and I were contacted and I spoke to Councillor Joanna Byrne about the matter. There is a great deal of shock and fear in Drogheda and other parts of County Louth. BD plans to cease and exit operations in Drogheda by the end of quarter 4 2026. A consequence of this decision is the possibility of redundancies at the Drogheda site. The company has entered into a redundancy consultation process with its workforce of 170 people and their representatives. It goes without saying that we are asking for full State engagement in this somewhat disastrous situation. Is there any possibility of a row back? We are asking for complete support for the workers and their families.

We need to examine the tech and pharma sectors, including medtech. There have been job losses, so we at least need to prepare ourselves for further losses. This is a major blow to Drogheda specifically. I hope that IDA Ireland will be involved in finding new operations. I have spoken with representatives of PayPal and many other companies that have experienced job losses over the past while. We in County Louth need to see the reverse happening soon.

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