IRISH Helicopters, the company which last year lost the Department of Marine air sea rescue contract, has reduced its staff to just 12 people.

The former Aer Lingus subsidiary said yesterday that it is laying off up to 14 staff this month at its Dublin, Shannon and Cork operations, as part of a major restructuring of its business.

The lay offs are the latest in a series of job losses at the company, which employed around 67 people before losing the Government contract to a Scottish rival. At that time more than 22 of its pilots left to join Bond Helicopters and other employees have also subsequently left the company.

Irish Helicopters, which is now owned by Bristow Helicopters, said yesterday that the job losses are due to a down turn in its business contracts. It will, however, continue to employ around 10 to 12 people at Dublin and Cork, where it operates offshore engineering and charter services.

A spokeswoman said that the loss of the Government contract was a "disappointment" for the group. But she stressed that the company is not going out of business and will be bidding for new contracts.

All of the 25 employees were put on notice at the beginning of April, but the scale of job losses was subsequently reduced to 14 after the company won two engineering service contracts for offshore exploration work. An agreement has been reached between the company and the trade unions representing staff. The Department's decision last August to switch the contract from Irish Helicopters to Bond Helicopters drew strong criticism at the time. Bond won the contract in a competitive tender quoting a substantially cheaper service to the Government than Irish Helicopters. The Department of the Marine claimed the savings generated could be channelled into improving the rescue services.