The Fruit of the Loom plant in Raphoe, Co Donegal, closed down completely yesterday with the loss of 220 jobs. The workers had been on short-term contracts since April.

Some 770 redundancies were announced at Fruit of the Loom last December when the company began the process of moving its T-shirt sewing operations to Morocco. Three satellite plants in Milford, Malin and Raphoe closed as a result.

All of the company's remaining workers in Buncrana in Co Donegal and in Derry city are to be put on a three-day working week from next week. This short-time working was announced last week and is due to a fall in sales, according to the company.