Eli Lilly, a global health-care and biopharmaceut-ical leader, will in the coming weeks submit a planning application with Limerick City and County Council for its IDA-supported €400 million brand-new manufacturing facility at Raheen Indus-trial Park, with the possib-ility of a 2025 opening.
The proposed project is expected to create more than 300 new jobs for highly skilled workers, while another 500 will be involved in the plant’s anticipated three-year construction phase, with a strong likelihood of work commencing later this year.
Dr Pat Daly, Chief Execu-tive of Limerick City and County Council explained: “There has been a co-ord-inated strategy to make Limerick a hub for the biopharma industry and this huge investment by Lilly is a further endorse-ment of this strategy.
“We’ve worked closely with IDA Ireland to ensure that Limerick has the infrastructure and resources in place to ensure that the investments that are coming in are successful and that they continue to invest here in Limerick once they arrive. The company will be able to leverage the expertise in smart and advanced manufacturing established in the region.”
Added Mayor Daniel Butler: “The decision by Eli Lilly to choose Lime-rick shows that the partnership approach that exists here between the local authority, IDA Ireland, the various other state agencies and the third level sector is working and Limerick is one of the most attractive locations for foreign direct investment in Ireland.”
Minister of State Niall Collins told this publi-cation: “This investment by Lilly is a major win for Limerick. Limerick has worked very hard to land this project. Limerick is home to a highly skilled and reliable workforce and has established itself as a centre of excellence in life sciences and biophar-maceutical manufacturing.
“The close links that have been fostered between the life sciences industry, communities, and univer-sities with strong science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pro-grammes in Limerick has made it the ideal location for Lilly’s new facility.”
Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan said the jobs announcement was “an amazing way to start the year.” Lilly, “fáilte go Luimneach,” he added.
Minister O’Donovan con-tinued: “This is a once in a generation investment into our region, and that it will make Limerick and the mid-west the envy of the rest of the country.”
“This is unbelievable news to start the new year for Limerick. An investment of this scale, €400 million which will see 500 con-struction jobs, and 300 jobs in the facility itself is yet another vote of con-fidence into Limerick and shows that the Government plan of attracting invest-ment into the regions is working.”
He too stated that more investments like this could continue to be secured for Ireland “now that the UK have left the EU.”
Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue described the news as “amazing”.
Lilly has been operating in Ireland since 1978 and currently has over 2,300 employees at a manu-facturing campus at Kinsale in Cork.
Its Manufacturing Operat-ions President Edgardo Hernandez said: “Over the past 40 years, we have continued to invest in Ireland in part because of supportive government policies that value life science innovation. This new Lilly campus in Limerick will allow us to expand our capacity to make innovative new medicines that can help treat some of the world’s most serious illnesses. This facility will use the latest technology to support advancements in science, productivity and sustain-ability, further establishing Lilly as a global manu-facturing leader.”
Said Martin Shanahan of IDA Ireland: “This pro-posed construction of a new biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility on a greenfield site in Limerick demonstrates the con-fidence Lilly has in Ireland and the region’s strong talent pool.”