US drug group Cardinal Health has finally pulled the plug on a planned €114 million investment in Longford. The project, which would have created 1,300 jobs in the area, was announced at the end of 2000.

A company restructuringsaw new management adopt a strategy of growth by acquisition rather than through greenfield development.

By October 2002, the company decided to defer a decision on the Longford development for two years.

Last Friday, however, at a meeting in London between representatives of the company, IDA Ireland and Longford County Council, Cardinal said it was abandoning the project.

An IDA Ireland spokesman said the agency had spent the past two years trying to persuade the Ohio-based company that greenfield development would augment its existing strategy.

The construction of Abbott Laboratories' plant in the town, which will employ 600 people, is seen as partly offsetting the disappointment at the loss of Cardinal.

Longford County Council acquired a site along the town bypass specifically to accommodate the Cardinal plant.

Mr Killeen said this would revert to the original owner under the terms of the agreement struck for its purchase.

Cardinal, which had made regular option payments totalling €1.2 million to the county council to secure its interest in the site, will receive that money back.