The State has not yet received European Commission approval for it to offer grant aid in order to support a €540 million investment by the US biopharmaceutical firm Centocor.

The application to pay the US company grants worth more than €50 million to support the project in Cork was made several months ago.

It is the first application to offer an investment project grants since Brussels turned down IDA Ireland's application to pay Intel grant aid worth €170 million in February.

The Commission's opposition to the grant proposal for Intel provoked an angry response from the Government, which had lobbied Brussels intensively on the issue at the highest levels.

At a briefing yesterday, IDA chief executive Sean Dorgan confirmed the agency was still awaiting a decision on the grant aid for Centocor from Brussels.

But he said he did not expect a negative decision on the landmark biopharmaceutical project, which was announced in July 2004 by the Tánaiste, Mary Harney.

Centocor, which is a global leader in biopharmaceuticals and a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, plans to build a new plant at Ringaskiddy employing 330 people.

The firm plans to undertake development and manufacturing of drugs. It currently develops treatments for a range of diseases including cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as immune-mediated inflammatory disorders such as arthritis and skin diseases.

Mr Dorgan said the Government would lobby Brussels on grant aid rules when they come up for negotiation next year.

He said it would be a mistake if governments and investment agencies could not offer grants to help attract cutting edge technology projects that were not competing with other states inside the European Union.