The Western reports that Tom Murphy, MD of Pamex Limited, the Castlebar based pharmaceutical firm, has been elected National President of the Pharmaceutical Managers Institute of Ireland, (PMII) at their Annual Conference held recently in the City Hotel, Derry. Tom has announced that next year’s Annual Conference of the institute will he held in the newly refurbished Breaffy House in Castlebar, which has recently undergone a £12m upgrade.

Well done to Tom who is the kind of innovative businessman that Castlebar needs. It is good to see him doing well and especially as Tom is rumoured to be a regular supporter and contributor of material here on castlebar.ie. The stories about his one million hit giveaway a couple of years are legend – another innovative coup on his part.

Christy Loftus reports on the loss of 25 jobs in Cedar Software located in Cedar House near the Moneen Roundabout. Ironically, Knxus almost simultaneously announced that they were creating 40 jobs in the same building, Cedar House. Stephen West, MD of Knxus, stated that their plans for new call centre staff were not in any way affected by the Cedar Software decision to close. Apparently the announcement of the Cedar closure had been mooted since the software company merged with Arelon to form a new company called CedAr.

It is unfortunate that Castlebar has lost some high quality software jobs. There have always been doubts about the quality of jobs in the call centre industry generally, but by all accounts the Castlebar-based operation is a cut above the usual – "an upmarket alternative to call centres" is the quote from the Western. Let’s hope they go from strength to strength.

For the third or fourth week in a row the Western covers the continuing farm pollution debate. This week the Loughs Conn and Cullin Anglers' Federation describe the IFA’s attack on Mr Roche, the North Western Fisheries Board boss, as "extraordinary." "That a man should be pilloried for seeking to fulfill the statutory obligations of his post beggars belief," said Mr Lawson Clements, chairman of the anglers’ federation. Mr Clements said "time is running out. At least forty per cent of group water schemes are polluted mainly because of flawed farming practices. Eighty-two per cent of health damaging nitrates that are getting into drinking water are identified as coming from agriculture."

The IFA are doing themselves no favours in this one. The smell of slurry wafted across the Mall on the Sunday of the 2003 June Bank Holiday. This was right, slap-bang in the middle of the Blues Festival, one of Castlebar’s major tourist and social events. It’s just a small indication of the "feck you" attitude of the farming community to both the environment and their neighbours. I remember a good number of years back walking across the Diamond in Monaghan town and almost puking from the smell of pig slurry in the centre of the town. I thought "Thank God it’s not like that in Castlebar". Tourism in Monaghan and Cavan? Whats that? The IFA leaders need to cop themselves on. We don’t see the bugs seeping down into rural drinking water supplies. We don’t see the phosphorus entering the rivers and lakes. The IFA therefore would like us to believe that none of this comes from their members. Forget "wake up and smell the coffee" - it's now "wake up and smell the shit". And it’s coming to a Mall near you.