Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, T.D., at the official opening of Abbott Mature Products Management Ltd., Woodford Business Park, Santry, Dublin, Thursday, 2 July, 2009 at 11.30 am

Tá áthas orm a bheith i Seantrabh inniu le haghaidh oscailt oifigiúil Abbott Mature Products Management Ltd.(MBO). Cruthófar caoga post den scoth sa chomhlacht seo agus daingneoidh na nascanna leanúnach idir an gcomhlacht Abbott agus Éirinn. Is dea-chomhartha an ócáid seo don Geilleagar Cliste atá ar intinn againn a mhunlú sa todhchaí.

I am delighted to be here with you in Santry today for the official opening of Abbott Mature Products Management Ltd. (MBO). It's great that Olivier Bohuon has been able to travel over from Abbott's HQ in Chicago to share in doing the honours. This is an important event, both for Ireland and for Abbott.

I very much welcome Abbott's decision to choose Ireland as the location for this, the international pharmaceutical HQ for their mature business operations. It marks an important strategic move by Abbott and an exciting new chapter in the company's ongoing engagement with Ireland.

50 high calibre jobs are being created with the establishment of Abbott MBO. They include directorships in commercial, marketing, medical and regulatory functions, as well as a range of positions across quality control, supply chain management, marketing and finance.

Abbott is a global, broad - based healthcare company, dedicated to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products. It employs more than 72,000 people and markets its products in over 130 countries around the world.

The history of this hugely successful company goes back a long way and to small beginnings - to 1888, and the tiny pills manufactured by 30 year old Dr. Wallace C. Abbott. Abbott's history with Ireland goes back quite a distance also. They came to Ireland with their commercial operation in 1946 and started manufacturing in Sligo in 1974. Abbott was in fact one of the first multinational companies to establish a manufacturing presence in Ireland, leading the way in an enormously positive development for our economy and for our people.

There are all kinds of very positive things to say about Abbott Ireland. It is one of Ireland's most important FDI investors in the Life Sciences sector.
With more than 3800 staff, it's obviously a very big employer - in fact, Abbott Ireland has the largest number of manufacturing employees outside the US. With facilities in all four provinces, it responds to the Government's focus on regional development.

For my colleagues and I in government, it is not good enough to survive this major global economic crisis. I have said before - we need to think smart, work smart, and be smart in order to build our future.

The Ireland of the future will be a smart, high-value, export-led economy. It will have some of the world's leading research-intensive multinationals, a number of which will be Irish-owned.

It will have thousands of innovative small and medium enterprises.

These companies will be creating the products and services of tomorrow and providing high quality employment for our people.

The country will have smart, efficient and citizen-oriented public services.

It will be energy independent and have high-quality living environments with smart transport solutions.

That is the future we are setting out to achieve. It is set out in the Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal published in December. That Framework shows how we will re-orientate and reprioritize the business of Government to achieve the goal of building a Smart Economy.

In this context, I am particularly delighted to attend this announcement.

Abbott provides a significant number of high-end jobs. Approximately half of Abbott Ireland's employees are third - level graduates and 100 of them have PhDs.

And it has won all sorts of awards for excellence in a wide range of areas - workplace excellence; Corporate Social Responsibility; commitment to the environment; and industry excellence and innovation. Earlier this year, it was voted one of the Top 50 Best Workplaces in Ireland - for the sixth time in a row.

Above all, this is a high energy, dynamic company, driven by scientific endeavour, innovation and commercialisation. It is exactly the kind of company that we want in Ireland as we build our Smart Economy - and a model of the kind of company that we would like to grow in Ireland for ourselves.

The choice of Ireland as the location for Abbott MBO augurs well for our plans for the future. It testifies to the confidence Abbott has in the technical expertise, flexible, "can do" attitude and efficiency of their employees. And it is also testament to Ireland's reputation as a leading location for FDI in the Life Sciences sector. Nine of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and 9 of the top 10 med tech companies operate in Ireland - interestingly, we have the highest per capita of medical technology personnel in the world. Abbott is, of course, an integral part of both the pharmaceutical and medical technology landscapes in this country and today's announcement means that they are deepening their roots still further.

Abbott MBO will be led by Brendan McAtamney and I would like to take this opportunity to wish him and his team every success for the future.

Thank you for your attention.

ENDS.