The Clare People Archive

A SOLICITOR who has vowed to become a thorn in the side of the State, over its handling of MRSA, has said deaths associated with the superbug should be investigated by coro- ners because they are not natural deaths.

Jan Simon of Brian Lynch and Associates, Galway, told the meet- ing of MRSA sufferers

and concerned relatives that he would be issu- Tb OTSam Watomm DCM o U1 MB OO MEU I) MRSA case later this Neto e

“IT am acting for be- reaved families, acting for ordinary people who came out badly maimed or dead. We (the com- pany of solicitors) are eating, breathing and sleeping MRSA. They need a solicitor to be a thorn in the side of the State,’ he said.

The company has employed a doctor with experience of working abroad to help with the or eh

The solicitor told the meeting in the Clare Inn that he had to go abroad to find an expert willing to speak out.

Mr. Simon said that cases relating to MRSA had already been taken in London, but it was only in the last year that people in Ireland

SHANNON-BASED pharmaceutical firm, Schwarz Pharma incurred a loss of over €6 million in its most recent accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office.

The loss arose from €11 million the company spent on financing a restructuring programme, which in- volved the redundancy of 70 staff in a programme launched two years ago.

The accounts for 2003 show that the company had an operating profit of just under €5 million on a turnover of €36 million. This was marginally up on the €4.63 million figure for 2002. However, profit was wiped out with the restructuring costs totalling €11.207 million.

The loss of €6 million was the first loss that Schwarz Pharma made in a number of years, during which the company accumulated profits of €33 million.

However, when accounts for 2004/5 are published, the profits are expected to be hit by the company in- vesting €6 million in new technology aimed at im- proving the company’s environmental performance.

The spend follows the company shutting down its production processes for six weeks earlier this year,

in response to local concerns over air emissions from the plant. The company is now compliant with its Inte- erated Pollution Control (IPC) licence.

The accounts also show that the company’s intan- gible assets are valued at €157 million at the end of 2003 — a massive increase of €84 million on the 2002 figure. Tangible assets stood at €35 million in 2003.

In an attached note, it’s stated that milestone pay- ments were made on the achievement of certain results involving research and development.

The company is in the process of a €70 million in- vestment at its plant over the next five years. The com- pany’s Director of Environment and Health and Safety, Dermot Hanrahan recently said that clinical trials in relation to new drugs “are going very well”.

It is upgrading its treatment plant and spending over €10 million on new equipment and the upgrading of existing equipment for new products.

Shannon owns the intellectual property and, corre- spondingly, the distribution rights for some of the new products and is currently preparing for the launch of these products. The first new product launched will be for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and is sched- uled for the end of 2005.

OVER 5,500 drivers in Clare have acquired penalty points since the points system was in- troduced three years ago, the vast majority of which have been for speeding.

Out of penalty points issued to 5,677 Clare motorists, 5,140 were for speeding; 478 were for drivers not wearing seatbelts; 24 were issued as a result of chil- dren in front seats of cars not wearing seatbelts; and 34 were for children in back seats not

wearing seatbelts.

There were no points issued to drivers with addresses in Clare for careless driving, or driving without insurance.

The head of the Clare traffic corps, Inspector Kevin Moyni- han, said that despite repeated warnings, drivers were continu- ing to speed. “People are still speeding and the number of fines imposed for speeding are certainly on a par with last year. There have been well over 400 fines for non-wearing of seatbelts so far this year,’ said Inspector

Moynihan. Figures obtained by

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