PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT PFIZER is to invest €100 million in two manufacturing sites in Ireland, creating an estimated 250 construction jobs.

The company said it is expanding two sites – one in Clondalkin in Dublin and the other in Ringaskiddy in Cork – to produce drugs which will deal with some of the most devastating and difficult to cure diseases.

Construction at the Dublin site is to begin soon, with 140 jobs to be created over the next year with a peak of 250 jobs altogether. The factory will be opened in 2015.

The €23 million euro investment in Ringaskiddy will create new equipment and technology to work on new clinical products.

Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton said the announcement was “confirmation that we are taking the right steps to ensure that Ireland is a key location for companies like Pfizer to expand and grow their business.”

Pfizer opened its first factory in Ireland in the 1970s and currently employs an estimated 3,200 people across six sites in Ireland. The company cut 6,000 jobs worldwide in 2010, with 200 people made unemployed from its plant in Newbridge in Kildare.

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