GPCE

manoverboards

Hey Does anyone know what the status of the GPCE project is ?

I heard the south-western rep from the IDA being interviewed on Radio Kerry a few weeks ago, and when asked if the IDA would be going to meetings with the GPCE he kept avoiding the question.

I thought this was funny, but today I heard that as the the IDA refused to attend meetings with investors or give their support the project so the GPCE have gone with another location in a different country.

I hope its not true but if it is the IDA should be disbanded, and the minister pulled up on this, a company wants to create 5000 jobs and the govt. and civil servants can't be bothered to do their jobs.

Somebody tell me this isn't true and the is some bit of sense is this country.

ongarboy

I read on Radio Kerry News online yesterday that it now appears there is another competing location in Ireland bidding for this project. Something smells fishy here. I suspect the IDA are trying to woo this project to another location due to political interference and clout which might explain why IDA are not interested in co-operating with the Kerry location.

The Radio Kerry article also said John O'Donoghue would meet Batt O'Keeffe (Minister for Enterprise) to get more attention and focus on the Kerry location. But as we know, O'Keeffe has now resigned yesterday and with the govt in turmoil until Election Day in March, I fear this development is being put on the back burner politically.

xxyyzz

There's an election coming up. Demand from every one of those politicians that call to your door what they are going to do about it.

namenotavailablE

There's an election coming up. Demand from every one of those politicians that call to your door what they are going to do about it.

+1,000,000 to the above.

Also, it's essential that they get the message to get the state agencies involved to progress the issue.

xxyyzz

Looks like this is still on the cards according to today's Kerry's Eye.

theaceofspies

Face it - this project has hit the rocks. Here we have the leaders debates centred around job creation. Pharmaceuticals have been mentioned in the preferred sectors but yet none have referred to this 'flagship' project even though it is a bandwagon waiting to be jumped on. This is Tom Doodle terrritory.
The minute this project became political that was the day it died. If it was any good anyway it would stand on it's own feet via venture capital.

Kerrydude1981

During the debate yesterday on Radio Kerry between the candidates running for election in the North Kerry/West Limerick area,it was said that there should be news on the GPCE project next week.

xxyyzz

Venture capital??? Seriously. They need €200m. €50m from the government and €150m from private investment. What venture capitalist has €150m these days or ever for that matter? It's not an SME they are trying to start up.

carchaeologist

Kerrydude1981

http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/

Plans for a Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence for Tralee have moved a step closer with news that a major pharmaceutical company is to visit Kerry next month.
The promoters have been in the United States this week for a series of meetings.
North Kerry/West Limerick TD Martin Ferris has announced that one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is to visit Kerry next month, after expressing a serious interest in the Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence.
The company has confirmed it'll visit Kerry on March 16th to meet with State agencies and local elected representatives.
Deputy Ferris spoke with the GPCE delegation in the US this afternoon. They said the company was extremely impressed with the vision behind the project and its proposed location in Kerry.
Deputy Ferris says this is a hugely significant development and makes the dream of this ambitious project all the more likely.

namenotavailablE

Excellent news- sincerely hope that it's well-founded and ultimately leads to an enormous boost to the town/county/province/country!

Remember to interrogate ALL election-seekers on their stance towards/ their efforts to advance this project. It will be the absolute making of Tralee should the vision be realised.

Tech3

Anyone else think this is a big joke?

ejmaztec

carchaeologist wrote: »

For a moment there, I thought it was a Jeanie Johnston reference, but then I remembered that the only sinking that almost took place after that involved the local councils.

ongarboy

Tech3 wrote: »

Anyone else think this is a big joke?

I think it's an extremely ambitious project that looks like it is too good to be true to actually materialise but my hopeful, optimistic side says it can happen. I've no doubt those involved in it are passionately committed to it, are taking it very seriously and they have gotten Kerry residents on board with it like no other project in recent history. Whether it will happen, who is to say but I would not write it off as pie in the sky just yet. Finger's crossed!

manoverboards

Thats some good news anyway, I hope it all goes as good from here on.

Sorry what am I saying, Kerry man tries to do something so big no one around here can fathom, he should really know his place, get back into the gutter before we kick you down.


I like the titanic reference tho, the biggest ship [read pharma research facility] in the world, created in Ireland. I wonder if the people of Belfast [ read Tralee] put H&W [read GPCE] down as much for trying?

Everyone should at least back them for trying to put this place on the world map, even if it does hit an iceberg [read the clowns in the govt. & IDA etc] and sink we could alway follow Belfast lead and build even on the failure.

Centerpoint could be named the 'GPCE Quarter'.

theaceofspies

Just like the nearby Tarbert Landbank (2 years to get a foreshore licence) and the obstacles put in front of the "Spirit of ireland project", the GPCE will/has hit the brick wall that is the civil service (in this case the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment).
Until there is real reform of these permanent government classes the private sector will continue to be on the floor in this country. To see the forward planning and vision going on in Germany right now thorough the development of Giant offshore wind turbines displays how much of a mickey mouse country this is. Yes ,the ideas are here (even great ones such as the Spirit of Ireland), it's just that the system smothers them.
If this country doesn't get it's act together quickly we are all going to be in the manure business.

Kerrydude1981

http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/

The promoters of the Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence in Tralee say up to 282 jobs could be created by May of this year.
It was announced last week that a leading US Pharmaceutical company would visit the town on March 16th with a view to becoming involved in the project.
Rory Doyle of GPCE says a further 4 companies will now visit Tralee at the same time and will announce 282 jobs.
The jobs would be in place by May of this year, and would be largely in the areas of research and development, accountancy, and legal services.
Mr Doyle say the FG leader and Taoiseach in waiting Enda Kenny has also pledged his support for the project.
GPCE has invited businesses and voluntary groups in Tralee interested in helping to prepare the town for the March 16th visits to attend a meeting in the Ballyroe Hotel in Tralee at 7pm tonight

scientist

In this weeks Kerryman it said that under the GPCE 282 jobs will be created by Glaxosmithkline in May of this year in Tralee so it's up yours to the begrudgers.:D

namenotavailablE

Brilliant news for Tralee- SIZE=1]Cautious qualifying statement now follows- I hope it's not overstating the realistic outcome from the visits in March[/SIZE.
The town could really use something positive.

amadain

GPCE has invited businesses and voluntary groups in Tralee interested in helping to prepare the town for the March 16th visits to attend a meeting in the Ballyroe Hotel in Tralee at 7pm tonight.


It's all systems go for the 16th visit !!!


Let's keep positive please !

Apogee

From today's Indo:

Ambitious R&D project to generate 282 posts

By John Mulligan
Monday March 07 2011

ALMOST 300 jobs will be announced next week as part of an ambitious project to build what has been described as a world-leading pharmaceutical research and development centre in Tralee, Co Kerry.

On March 16, five major firms will announce that they will create 282 jobs over a 15-month period. The move marks the first phase of a potential €4.5bn investment in a project that might ultimately see 4,500 jobs brought to Kerry.

Pat Barry, the chief executive of Pharmadel, the Cork-headquartered firm that's promoting the Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence (GPCE) project, told the Irish Independent that recruitment to fill the positions was likely to start immediately.

He said he was unable at this stage to reveal the names of the companies but said they were all well-recognised firms within the pharmaceutical sector. The chief executives of the companies are understood to be planning to visit Ireland to coincide with the announcement.

Mr Barry said that other companies had also now expressed "strong interest" in establishing a presence at the facility.

He added that a planning application for what would be an extensive campus was likely to be lodged next month, or in May at the latest.

At the moment, the GPCE is operating from one building in the town. Government funding is not being sought at this stage.

Yo soy el burro

Great now I only need 5 years i.t. experience before I can get a job. Shame i'm not a nurse would have only needed three...

scientist

Hi there,
Where did you find out that you need 5 years experience to get a job and that nurses would only need 3?

Yo soy el burro

scientist wrote: »

Hi there,
Where did you find out that you need 5 years experience to get a job and that nurses would only need 3?

Under the careers tab. All the people they want and what ya need..

http://www.gpce.ie/

scientist

Thanks,
Just had a look there. I'm a science person so it looks like they are taking them with no experience although i have some. Hoping to get a job there too.I d wait until they advertise though sounds like thats just a general guideline. It will depend on the job. I'm sure theyll have to give work experience to people aswell.Would love to know what way its going to work.

Quaderno

radiokerry wrote:

09 Mar 2011
Public invited to meeting to prepare for arrival of companies interested in GPCE project

Members of the public are being invited to a meeting to prepare for the arrival of companies who are involved or interested in the GPCE project. The special meeting of the Tidy Tralee Together committee will take place tonight at 8 o'clock in the Tralee Town Council chamber.

The aim of the event is to organise to clean up the town and surrounding areas in preparation for the arrival of the pharmaceutical companies who will arrive in Tralee on March 16th. The Tidy Tralee Together committee says it's crucial Tralee is shown in its best light for the visit.

That's in about 40 minutes. I think Tralee could certainly do with a nice cleanup, GPCE or not. I'll try to be there in time, don't know whether I can make it though.

scientist

Have they announced the jobs yet? Thought i heard something on kerryradio today.:D

ongarboy

scientist wrote: »

Have they announced the jobs yet? Thought i heard something on kerryradio today.:D

Almost 300 jobs just announced on the Irish Times website. See link below. Fantastic news and a great start to this project. Lets hope it reaches it's full potential and turns the tide for Tralee - Delighted :D:D

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0316/breaking46.html

scientist

I know! i am so thrilled with the whole thing! Now I must think about how to get me a job there!!!!

Quaderno

Yes, great news indeed. Many people did a lot of work to make it happen.
I noticed how unbelievably tidy the town has become over the last couple of days, even the whole road from the airport to Tralee had been cleaned. Not one single bottle or sheet of paper in the ditches, flags flying on nearly every lamppost and an estimated 25 full size billboards with the "xxx welcomes the GPCE" all the way into town. All the flowerbeds newly planted, the fountains running in glorious sunshine and so on. A really great day for the people of Kerry, and one to be proud of for all who contributed. Thank you!

scientist

Yes. They deseve all credit for putting all that time and effort into making something happen for Kerry.I'm Proud of them. They didnt just moan about the job situation they got up and did something about it. Fair play to them.

siblers

Wonder what kinda jobs they will be, like will you need some kind of science degree or will there be more broad clerical type jobs?

carchaeologist

Quaderno wrote: »

Yes, great news indeed. Many people did a lot of work to make it happen.
I noticed how unbelievably tidy the town has become over the last couple of days, even the whole road from the airport to Tralee had been cleaned. Not one single bottle or sheet of paper in the ditches, flags flying on nearly every lamppost and an estimated 25 full size billboards with the "xxx welcomes the GPCE" all the way into town. All the flowerbeds newly planted, the fountains running in glorious sunshine and so on. A really great day for the people of Kerry, and one to be proud of for all who contributed. Thank you!

If only it was always like this....such a novelty to see the roadsides cleaned.

dapto1

siblers wrote: »

Wonder what kinda jobs they will be, like will you need some kind of science degree or will there be more broad clerical type jobs?

There seems to be a fairly wide range listed on the careers section of the website, anyway.

Ciarrai76

I didn't realise they had already put up a list of the jobs available. I'm tempted to apply, but I've been so long out of the area I am experienced/qualified in that I'm actually too scared to do it! putting up the salary scale might help though as it would determine if I would be better off where I am or not!

REGUSA

This is great news for Kerry and hopefully the beginning of large organisations setting up businesses in rural areas where work is badly needed. We can't all live and work in the big cities. Wondering where and with whom the jobs will be posted........looking forward to possibly obtaining work with a company who offers a full-time position that is not seasonal. Hooray for Kerry!!!:)

dapto1

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

I didn't realise they had already put up a list of the jobs available. I'm tempted to apply, but I've been so long out of the area I am experienced/qualified in that I'm actually too scared to do it! putting up the salary scale might help though as it would determine if I would be better off where I am or not!

Sure it can't hurt to send them an email.

REGUSA

REGUSA wrote: »

This is great news for Kerry and hopefully the beginning of large organisations setting up businesses in rural areas where work is badly needed. We can't all live and work in the big cities. Wondering where and with whom the jobs will be posted........looking forward to possibly obtaining work with a company who offers a full-time position that is not seasonal. Hooray for Kerry!!!:)

Thanks. CV already sent. Good luck to all!

Bloody Nipples

Are the wheels slowly coming off?

PLANS to build a multi billion campus in Tralee for the mooted Euro Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence have been abandoned by the backers of the project.

The Kerryman has learned that the GPCE company has effectively given up on plans to construct a massive campus-style complex for the highly ambitious project on 32 acres of land adjacent to Shannon Development's Kerry Technology Park near Tralee Institute of Technology.

GPCE, which has leased a small amount of office space in the Centrepoint building in Tralee, has indicated that rather than trying to build and fill a single site, the company will now try to accommodate any companies that are willing to work under the GPCE umbrella in existing offices and buildings in the greater Tralee area.

The Kerryman understands that the buildings under consideration include Centrepoint, the former Aetna premises in Castleisland and a number of potential sites, some of which are still to be developed in the Manor and Mile Height areas of Tralee.

The proposed campus was supposed to accommodate some 45 to 50 small and medium pharmaceutical companies which, between them, would have, according to the GPCE, employed around 4,500 people.

A public meeting last March heard that the planned campus,

on a 32-acre site owned by Shannon Development, was to have been a four-storey building, with a basement level, built on a landscaped site.

The building would have measured a massive 1.2 million square feet in size with a site footprint about 10 acres larger than Croke Park and would have required eight separate car parks.

News that the campus plan has been scrapped follows confirmation last month that the backers of the GPCE project, citing difficulties in their dealings with the IDA and Shannon Development, are in negotiations to move the entire project north of the border to Derry.

That development provoked a furious reaction in Tralee and led to major political pressure on the two state agencies to fully engage with GPCE and secure the jobs for Kerry.

To this end representatives of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland travelled to Washington DC late last month to meet with a number of potential GPCE investors at the 2011 BIO International Conference.

During the trip the group met with US multinationals GRS and Optivia — two of the firms who last March committed to creating 282 jobs based at the Centrepoint building in Tralee. These jobs were to represent Phase 1 of the GPCE project.

So far these jobs have yet to materialise and while the recruitment process has commenced it remains to be seen if Phase 1 will be up and running by the end of July 2011 as is stated on the GPCE website.

ejmaztec

Bloody Nipples wrote: »

Are the wheels slowly coming off?

They'll be lucky to get two jobs out of this, and it's been a complete shambles.

Sardonicat

ejmaztec wrote: »

They'll be lucky to get two jobs out of this, and it's been a complete shambles.

Two jobs? I think you are being optimistic!

dapto1

Sardonicat wrote: »

Two jobs? I think you are being optimistic!

They might need to hire a few people to take down all the signs?

Sardonicat

dapto1 wrote: »

They might need to hire a few people to take down all the signs?

True. Perhaps they could avail of WPP or the graduate internship scheme for that.

theaceofspies

Pleny of lessons to be learned from this fiasco. Unfortunately when will us Kerry folk grow up and get real? - Tom Doodle strikes again. The only winners were the sign makers.

ejmaztec

theaceofspies wrote: »

Pleny of lessons to be learned from this fiasco. Unfortunately when will us Kerry folk grow up and get real? - Tom Doodle strikes again. The only winners were the sign makers.

The only problem is that those responsible never do learn, and are always too busy blaming everyone else for the screw-ups.

Benny-c

A little bit of good news perhaps-GPCE back on the agenda??

http://www.u.tv/News/Derry-loses-major-job-boost-to-Kerry/ccb1c88f-c178-4ca4-bc0d-2ff330851d8a

Bloody Nipples

Don't they need a start-up of ~40m euro from the Government?

I'd say they were just throwing the Derry idea out there in the hope of scaring up some funds to let them actually get going.

I'll believe it when I see it. Have there been any signs of anything actually getting started in Tralee?

kn

dapto1 wrote: »

They might need to hire a few people to take down all the signs?

How prophetic!
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0207/1224311400795.html

It looks as if we will get 2 jobs out of this after all........if only for a day or two......

kn

Surely when the Courts Service leased the offices GPCE were using in Centrepoint the jig was clearly up!

carchaeologist

So absolutely nothing came out of all this. Not a thing!?

kevmol88

Tech3 wrote: »

Anyone else think this is a big joke?

Well spotted :rolleyes::rolleyes: