A round up of today's other stories in brief...

Meat group to create 120 jobs in Offaly

The company which took over the former Glanbia pigmeat processing plant in Edenderry, Co Offaly, following a major fire, announced it will create 120 new jobs there under a major investment programme.

Rosderra Irish Meats Group Ltd is understood to be investing between €12 and €15 million on the plan to rebuild the section of the processing plant destroyed in a fire last August. The new sections will be completed by November, with the immediate creation of 50-60 new jobs. This number will grow to about 120 when the plant is running at full capacity, the company said.

Liquidator named for golf resort firm

A liquidator has been appointed to Thomas Kearns Developments, the development firm behind Carrig Glas hotel and golf resort in Co Longford, on which Bank of Ireland is owed €35 million.

The High Court appointed Declan Taite of accountancy firm FGS to the company on Monday. Building firm Bowen Construction has made a bad debt provision of €8 million over its involvement in the development.

Money rates near seven-year high

The cost of three-month wholesale money in euro, the benchmark for mortgage lending costs, held yesterday near its highest level in more than seven years.

The three-month euro interbank rate, or Euribor, rose 0.1 per cent to 4.97 per cent last Friday, its highest increase since 2001, after the European Central Bank signalled that it may raise rates by 0.25 per cent next month.

Fall in industrial production

Industrial production fell 1.3 per cent in the 12 months to April, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.

The seasonally-adjusted volume of industrial production for manufacturing Industries for the three-month period February to April 2008 was 1.7 per cent lower than in the preceding three month period. The "modern" sector, comprising a number of high-tech and chemical sectors, showed an annual increase in production for April of 0.2 per cent.

International sales boost Tesco

International sales lifted Tesco's performance in the three months to the end of May, as a strong euro helped European sales, including Irish sales, grow by 32 per cent.

International sales grew by 26.6 per cent, bringing Tesco's overall sales growth for the first quarter of its financial year to 13.7 per cent. If the effect of the stronger euro against sterling is stripped out, international sales were ahead by 13.9 per cent. Tesco plans to open 16 new stores in Ireland in 2008.

Business leaders less bullish

Irish business leaders are less bullish about the prospects for the Irish economy in the coming year, according to a survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Fewer than one fifth of chief executives rated the outlook for the economy as favourable, compared to around 75 per cent last year, the CEO Pulse survey found.

Kentz signals positive outlook

Engineering group Kentz said yesterday that it has a strong backlog and pipeline of work for the year ahead. Its agm in Jersey heard the firm is working on contracts worth $827 million at the end of the first four months of the year, compared with $596.4 million in 2007.