Elan cannot confirm if new plant set for Athlone

Elan is not in a position to confirm whether a new manufacturing plant will be located in Athlone, but said any investment in the biological area of business will be in Ireland. And while national media has reported that a decision on the location of a new €200m manufacturing plant in the country will be made in the next eight weeks, Elan said it couldn"t confirm when such a decision would be made. A spokeswoman said yesterday (Tuesday): 'Elan reviews its business on an ongoing basis and if there is going to be an investment in the biologics area it will be in Ireland, but because the review isn"t completed we can"t confirm where in Ireland or when.' The manufacturing plant, which could employ in the region of 500 people, was initially planned as an expansion of the Athlone facility, as outlined by Mr Martin during a visit to Athlone in 2005. However, there has been growing concern locally that the new plant will be located in Dublin. Fianna Fáil Deputy Mary O"Rourke said yesterday (Tuesday) she would be very disappointed if that was to happen and said she was continuing to follow up the matter with Tánaiste and Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan. Fine Gael Deputy Denis Naughten has also expressed deep concern about the possible location of the new plant in Dublin and has also raised the issue with the Tánaiste when she took up office, who informed him then that no decision had yet been made by the company. However, Deputy Naughten said yesterday afternoon that the decision to locate the National Bioprocessing Reserach Facility in Dublin instead of AIT, as previously planned, may factor in Elan"s decision on where it will locate the new manufacturing plant. He said if Elan decided to locate the plant in the capital it would have major implications for the development of new facilities in the Midlands region. 'It was originally planned for Athlone, it was going to secure the longterm future of Elan on the Athlone site. The fact that there is speculation now on where they are going to locate it throws into doubt the Athlone facility. It doesn"t augur well for Elan"s future in Athlone, hopefully it"s just idle speculation. It"s vitally important for Athlone"s future,' he said. Deputy Naughten said the location of the plant in Dublin would have major ramifications for the Midlands as it would be the third major flagship investment the town lost out on, the first two being ebay and the National Biprocessing Research Facility. However, he added that if it goes the opposite way it will put Athlone and the Midlands very much on the industrial agenda and will bring other companies to the town. IDA Regional Director Kevin McCarthy said the IDA Midlands Region would want to hold onto what it has and expand on it and said it was the IDA"s understanding that Elan was looking at a number of options for the location of the new plant, including Athlone.