Clean-up costs at Roche Pharmaceutical's Clare site pass €150m
New accounts show that Roche Ireland Ltd recorded losses of €54.9m in 2024 as its decommissioning and remediation spend concerning its decision to exit manufacturing here continued to mount and now totals €150.5m over five years.
The €54.9m loss for 2024 includes a combined spend of €48.26m on environmental and demolition costs which is the highest spend on environmental costs across the project that has been ongoing since 2020.
The plant was once one of the most prestigious places of employment in the Midwest and the pharma giant announced its decision in 2016 to shut down its Clarecastle plant with the loss of 240 jobs.
After the firm failed to secure a buyer for the pharma site, it set about decommissioning the site and demolishing its fine chemical manufacturing plant "to a brown field status' and capable of attracting new investment.
The €54.96m loss for 2024 followed losses of €42.93m in 2023 and losses of €26.15m in 2022 and the losses chiefly relate to the environmental spend.
The new accounts show that the company's 'environmental' spend last year totalled €44m which was an increase on the €38.66m spent under that heading in 2023. The company's demolition costs last year totalled €4.5m.
A spokeswoman for Roche Ireland said today 'five years into the project, the final phase of decommissioning – the remediation of three specified areas on-site, including the removal of a legacy landfill – is now underway and is scheduled to be completed by year-end 2027'.
The Irish unit during last year received a €55m capital contribution from a connected Roche entity to fund the programme and this followed a capital contribution of €43m in 2023.
The Roche Ireland spokeswoman described the remediation scheme as 'gold standard, over and above Roche Ireland Limited's statutory environmental obligations in Ireland'.
She said: 'The project is one of the largest remediation projects of its type in Europe, providing employment for, on average, 100 people.'
She added: 'The funding committed to the project by a company exiting manufacturing activities in Ireland is unique.
'With decommissioning well advanced, Roche Ireland Limited is now focused on working with key stakeholders to identify new investors for this strategically positioned site in Co. Clare.'
She said that when the remediation project is complete, the company will have met its two objectives - delivering a brownfield site with the potential to deliver sustainable jobs under a new investor and leaving a positive legacy for the local community, Clare and Ireland.
Excavation at the first area of environmental concern was completed in January 2024, with 17,500 tonnes of contaminated soil transported off-site in 674 sealed containers to a licensed thermal treatment facility in Holland. Groundwater purification of that area is currently underway.
This week, meanwhile, the Swiss government is due to meet this week with pharmaceuticals firms including Roche after US president Donald Trump has asked them to lower their prices, as Switzerland seeks to negotiate down a new 39% tariff on its exports.
Swiss economy minister Guy Parmelin and health minister Elizabeth Baume-Schneider were due to meet with executives from Roche and Novartis. A spokesperson for the Swiss health minister confirmed the meeting but declined to give any details or confirm the participants.
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