What annoys me is you always see a minister opening some place or there to announce job creation to get their mug in the media. Never there when jobs are lost. They keep very quiet.

Should we have gotten ourselves 200 billion into debt over the last 6 years, instead of 100 billion euro? And that’s just for the day to day running of the country.

I didn’t see any of that €200m? Did you?
And I don’t know anyone else who did.

€200bn, even.

Brenda
That plant is anything but a state of the art facility. Why do you think it’s closing.

I’m not sure how much more the people can take. Gardai are protesting, nurses, teachers, unemployment is going through the roof and emigration has become part of Government policy. I am not a member of supporter of any political party. I am father and husband, a normal guy who always worked hard and paid my taxes. I believed our leaders, I trusted them, I honestly was naive enough to think that because we employ them to represent us that they would do their best and wanted the best for us. I was fooled, I am a fool to have believed the spin, the lies, the media sound bites, the promises. I have lost my job like many others and I had to leave my country, I doubt I’ll ever return because it seems that the political elite and bankers have destroyed it beyond repair, not just for my generation but for my children also. It breaks my heart to leave, I deeply love Ireland, it is my home but a home without a real government, laws, accountability, leaders. I still follow Irish events and listen to the radio on the net, there was a song on 2fm this morning that brought tears to my eyes, Ive seen it on a few forums also. Its the closest thing I’ve heard that captures the true story, the traitors and the lives they have destroyed. They dont give a **** about us and never will, they care about their pensions and huge salaries, Ill tell you one thing they wont ever know the worry of the esb bill coming or how they are going to afford food for the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edfNeMIm2Jk

P.S FF are topping the polls again? How can we expect change if we keep doing the same thing over and over again.

@Paul Moore: Well said mister, and sorry for your sadness at having to leave. I understand you having left for the sake of your children. But it should be obvious, with the support numbers increasing for FF and it becoming more obvious by the day that FG and Lab are not one jot different, that this place will never change. We deserve everything we get, for not only putting up with these crooks, but providing them with the lifestyle to which they feel so rightfully entitled.
I would council you not to hold on to any teary eyed notion of this place and coming back here. Don’t! You will be doing your children a major disservice by coming back to this godforsaken sh*thole. I wish I had the option of getting out.
It is interesting that your post garnered 12 (at the time of writing this) “Dislikes”. I rest my case!

i see three people like the government ….the three wise men

Steve, many decisions to close manufacturing facilities large and small are based on labour cost. However, if these so called experts knew enough about manufacturing and how it related to the overall business, labour cost is usually a very small % of the cost of ANY product.

Manufacturing companies employing lean business methods to their operations are thriving, even in “high-cost” countries including Ireland (also US, Germany, Japan etc). This is true of operations as diverse as agricultural machinery, furniture, sound systems, cars and indeed pharma. Too many companies are stil focused on the unit cost of the product, instead of the total cost of running a facility.

In this case, while the decision is a difficult one to accept, I think the company must be given some credit that the decision has been made and announced so early. With multi-nattionals, their scale allows them to move locations quickly and it may very well be a strategic move. Singapore isn’t the lowest cost country in the world but it is physically closer to emerging markets that the company may be targeting.

In any case, this is a difficult day for all concerned and hopefully the staff will be able to secure employment elsewhere between now and the end of next year.

“Ireland is too expensive to have manufacturing plants in”

Depends on what you are manufacturing really. They are moving some production to Tipperary. And some to Singapore – which is hardly a low cost option for manufacturing.

And Ireland and Germany were the only two euro zone countries not to report a fall in manufacturing activity last month.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0302/1224330697004.html

Msd since 2007 have went from one site in Ireland to 8 I think, and invested heavily in existing sites, manufacturing is far from over in Ireland, but it is changing and becoming more lean and efficient! People’s resistance to these changes could force high end manufacturing out of this country but not the cost of manufacturing itself!

Ryan
All over the World the Pharma manufacturers are strategically reassessing their production facilities because it costs billions every year in maintaining quality standards nevermind complying with Regulatory requirements. Additionally product portfolios change over time due to patent expiry and suddenly a plant has to close.
Your posting blames this on Government and indeed all of your postings are totally anti Government.
As this case illustrates you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about so in the interests of the employees this morning and Ireland’s need to attract more industry of this type it might be better for you to remain silent.

The plant was Schering Plough who merged with Merck and unfortunately the new company does not need this plant anymore. A very, very bad day for Rathdrum and Wicklow

I had an interview there recently, good pay and conditions, thank God I didn’t get it.

Rodrigo
Don’t continue to publicly expose your ignorance. This plant is very old and the reinvestment necessary to bring it up to GMP standards is far in excess of the returns that could be made even if the Company had products to manufacture. Remember many of these Companies have products reaching the end of their patent life and that immediately collapses demand for manufacturing. Grants have nothing to do with this high end Industry. They don’t invest in Ireland for Grants and they don’t close factories because of their absence.

What are you crapping on about?

With literacy like yours no wonder you’re on the bottom of the rung.

clueless redthumbs