Dublin received its second major jobs reverse in a week yesterday with a closure announcement from electronics manufacturing company Solectron, which employs 375 people.
The announcement follows news that Ardagh will close its Irish Glass Bottle plant in Ringsend with a similar number of workers being laid off.
Solectron, based in Clonshaugh industrial estate on Dublin's northside, said the closure was part of its restructuring programme.
It expects all manufacturing activities to have ceased on the site by August.
"Unfortunately, we cannot ignore changing market conditions, including significantly lower customer demand resulting from the economic downturn. We must manage our business now to ensure Solectron's long-term health and competitiveness worldwide," said Mr Peter Rivett, general manager of Solectron Ireland.
The company lost $126 million (€138 million) in the last quarter and has cut 30,000 jobs as part of its worldwide restructuring programme which it started last year. "This is not a reflection of how our people in Dublin have performed," he added.
The Irish operation, however, had not been profitable for more than two years, said Mr Rivett, but declined to give a figure for the losses it had accrued.
"They've been significant enough that it's not something we can sustain going forward. We've seen the level of business drop considerably on the site," he said.
Ironically, yesterday's announcement comes just a year after Solectron completed an extension at the plant, understood to have cost about $35 million, as part of a decision made two years ago to supplement its systems assembly and configuration business to include printed circuit board assembly operations.
"That was an investment we were making at a worldwide level due to the demand that was in the marketplace at that time.
"That demand has significantly decreased, starting 12 months ago across all sites, across the whole industry and it has affected us in the same way," said Mr Rivett.
He added that there was no chance the plant could be operated on a scaled-down basis.
"At this point, we are clearly into a closure of the site," he said.
"There are opportunities for staff to relocate within Solectron in any of the sites at a worldwide level but I'd need to counter that by saying that, clearly, we are seeing this downturn across all of our locations and those opportunities will be somewhat limited."
The Labour Party deputy for Dublin North East, Mr Tommy Broughan, described the closure of Solectron as a "shocking blow" to the north side of the city.
Fine Gael's policy director and TD for Dublin North Central, Mr Richard Bruton, called for the urgent establishment of a regional employment initiative to investigate what can be done to help businesses on the northside.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, said FÁS had already made arrangements to engage with the workforce, while IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland would step up efforts to identify new investment for the area.
