A Galway company, Solplax Ltd has completed negotiations to sell the patent rights to a new plastic replacement material for a reputed £30 million to a US company. Solplax has developed a new line of plastic replacement products which are fully biodegradable and have a wide variety of applications. They can be used to substitute for a wide variety of plastics and plastic related products. The product retains high strength in an unruptured state and could have applications in the medical, industrial and hygiene sectors. The company said that negotiations are at an advanced ICTU capitalists The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has urged the Government to give more favourable tax treatment to worker shareholding and profit sharing schemes.

In a submission yesterday, the ICTU said it reminded the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, that the Government gave a clear commitment "to introduce appropriate tax adjustments for these schemes in the 1997 Finance Bill".

ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said measures to promote profit sharing schemes and worker shareholding are essential if the process of partnership are continue.

He said the "radical change of attitude" required to move to "a genuine partnership in Irish workplaces will have to come from management and unions, primarily, but Government initiatives in the 1997 Finance Bill could help this process enormously."