COMPUTER FIRM Dell is likely to seek more more than 200 redundancies at its operations in Dublin and Limerick as part of a drive to reduce its costs worldwide by $4 billion (€2.9 billion) over the next two years.

Staff at Cherrywood, Co Dublin and Raheen in Limerick were briefed on the company’s plans yesterday. The company will now enter into a 30-day consultation period with staff.

The Irish Times understands that Dell is identifying specific areas where it can reduce staff numbers and that redundancies will not be voluntary.

The company declined to comment but confirmed meetings were taking place with staff.

At the start of the year, Dell announced that it would cease manufacturing PCs in Limerick with the loss of 1,900 jobs by the end of the year. Production has been moved to a plant in the Polish city of Lodz. Last month, when Dell announced fourth-quarter results for its 2009 financial year, it said it was looking to achieve $4 billion savings by the end of 2011 rather than the previous target of $3 billion.

At the time, Michael Dell, founder and chief executive of the firm, said “a lot of IT spending is being deferred until there’s better economic visibility”.

It is likely that 130 jobs will go at Cherrywood where Dell employs 1,300 staff in sales, marketing and support activities. Dell will reduce numbers in Limerick, where it employs 1,000, by 100.

The mayor of Limerick, Cllr John Gilligan, said he was bracing himself for more bad news from Dell and claimed the computer giant has “absolutely no commitment to our city”.

“I think Limerick can prepare itself for more shocks from Dell. Lets face it, Dell is on its way out from Limerick and we’re going to have to face up to that at some stage, “ said Cllr Gilligan.

Fine Gael Limerick East TD and deputy finance spokesman Kieran O’Donnell yesterday accused the Tánaiste of being “asleep at the wheel”.

“These are the very jobs we had hoped to build on in Limerick following January’s announcement of 1,900 manufacturing job losses in Dell. The fact that high-end jobs in business development, innovation and research and development are going is a very worrying development indeed,” said Mr O’Donnnell.

Dell reduced its Irish workforce by 250 last April, with Cherrywood feeling the brunt of the cuts. At its peak, Dell employed 5,000 people in Ireland; by next year this will have dropped to 2,000.

In January, when Dell confirmed it would cease manufacturing in Limerick, senior Dell executive Seán Corkery cited the cost of production in Ireland versus Poland. The latest cuts seem to relate, however, to wider issues of costs at Dell rather than Ireland’s competitiveness.