REDUNDANCIES: Two of the largest employers in Ireland yesterday announced 450 job cuts. US medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific is reducing its Galway workforce by 250, with troubled Canadian telecoms giant Nortel cutting a further 200 jobs from its plant in Belfast.

Boston Scientific has said there are no plans for any further redundancies in its Irish operations, following its latest announcement.

However, it confirmed yesterday that the 150 redundancies it is seeking between now and Christmas among general operatives is in addition to the 100 job cuts sought over the past four weeks in the technical area.

The US company, which is the world's largest specialist in medical devices, employs 2,100 people in Galway and a total of 3,200 people in Ireland.

It says it is in a "rebalancing period" and has denied that the decision is associated with any "downturn".

New products requiring different manufacturing skills are due to be introduced later this year, according to the company.

The voluntary severance programme among manufacturing staff would not affect the company's research and development activities at its Ballybrit plant in Galway and there would be no reductions in the company's plants in Cork, Tullamore, Co Offaly, and Letterkenny, Co Donegal, a spokesman said yesterday.

It is expected that up to 70 staff will leave by the end of July, with the remainder departing by the end of December.

The first offer of 100 voluntary redundancies over the past four weeks in the technical area was "fully subscribed", according to the spokesman.

Mr Noel Fogarty, vice-president of operations for Boston Scientific Ireland Ltd, said the company in Galway had seen "very significant levels of growth" since it was first established there in 1994.

"This growth has been driven by transfers from other facilities in Europe and the US, together with transfers from acquisitions, as well as the company's success in the marketplace since it was established," he said. "This growth has levelled off for the present," he added.

Combined with a "decrease in natural attrition", this had led to an "imbalance between manufacturing and volume requirements", Mr Fogarty said.

The workforce at Nortel's Northern operation, which employs around 1,000 people, was told of the decision yesterday afternoon.

The job cuts follow an announcement by the company last month that it was making 2,000 workers redundant worldwide in an effort to get back into profit.

A spokesman for the company said management at the Monkstown plant would be talking to staff to minimise the impact of the move, with all 200 jobs expected to be gone by September.

The jobs are believed to be in the company's research and development division, its customer care unit and among supply chain personnel.

More than 1,000 jobs have been cut at the plant in the past two years as a result of the global downturn in the technology sector.

The plant produces infrastructural equipment for telecommunications networks and has been a market leader in the provision of fibre optics.

The Monkstown factory is Nortel's largest optical systems house in Europe.