Johnson & Johnson has confirmed that its decision to "realign" its global manufacturing network will not affect workers at the state-of-the-art £31 million plant it is developing at Ringaskiddy in Cork harbour.
The company is undertaking a worldwide review of its operations and it is anticipated that there would be significant job losses in plants in several countries. The Cork plant was announced in 1996 by the late Mr Hugh Coveney, as minister of state at the Department of Finance. At the time Mr Coveney said the new Johnson & Johnson facility would bring up to £20 million a year to the local economy and he described it as further evidence of the company's confidence that Ireland was a successful location from which to operate a world-wide business.
Despite fears yesterday that the company's new global strategy would impact not only on the new Cork plant but on two others - Janssen Pharmaceuticals at Little Island in Co Cork and Bistakon in Limerick - the company has moved to give assurances that the Irish operations are safe.
In a statement issued yesterday Mr Gerry Fagan, general manager of the Ringaskiddy plant, said that from the outset Johnson & Johnson had pinpointed Cork as a centre of excellence and that the company would continue to operate there. The announcement concerning global realignment would have no impact on the Ringaskiddy plant, he added.
"There is absolutely no change whatsoever to the development of the Cork plant. We currently have 173 employees at our Cork facility and our future plans for 1999 are to hire another 100 employees, as per our original hiring schedule. In summary, the future of the Cork plant is excellent. We are delighted with the progress we are making here in Cork and our plans go ahead unchanged and on schedule.".