Computer giant Dell is to cut up to 250 jobs in Dublin and Limerick, the company said today.
Staff were briefed earlier on the job cuts which are to be in sales, marketing, finance, technical support and other administrative functions. The bulk of the losses are expected to affect the Dublin operation.
A spokeswoman for the company said that although Dell was still experiencing double digit growth globally, it recognised that more needed to be done. She refused to speculate on further job losses, and said the cuts were part of consolidation in the Irish workforce. The company said a similar level of job losses would be reflected throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Dell employs approximately 4,500 people in Ireland.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore described the job losses as "a very worrying development" and laid the blame at the feet of the Government, accusing it of becoming complacent.
"Today's job losses are related to the failure of Fianna Fail led Governments to deliver in such areas as infrastructure and broadband and to control utility costs. As a result we appear to be losing well paid jobs such as those in Dell," he said.
Mr Gilmore called on Brian Cowen to make these issues a priority as he assumes power, along with a new approach to education and re-training to ensure that the national skillset matched international demand.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin called on the Government to offer assistance to those affected by the cuts at Dell.
The party's workers' rights spokesman Arthur Morgan said there was a "deepening crisis in the economy" and called on the Government to outline what new measures they were planning to sustain jobs in the economy.
"The fact that these job losses are high level jobs in a sector that is seen as growing is quite alarming. This is a sector in which it was hoped jobs lost in other sectors would be replaced. Indeed many workers who have lost jobs in traditional sectors have been training and upskillling for jobs in this sector. It is highly worrying that this sector is now beginning to leak jobs itself," he said.
Earlier this month, the company announced plans to cut its workforce by 10 per cent worldwide and reduce expenses by at least $3 billion (€1.9 billion) annually by 2011.
The world's second-largest personal computer maker after Hewlett-Packard, Dell said earlier this month it would "go past" an original job-cutting goal of 8,800 first announced in May 2007.
Selling and administrative expenses surged 27 per cent in the firm's fiscal 2008, partly because of higher compensation and costs for a lengthy audit of the company's accounting.
Fine Gael said the redundancies were an ominous sign for Ireland's high-tech sector and the economy as a whole.
Labour Affairs spokesman for the party, Damien English, said it was a major blow to Ireland's reputation as a destination for multinationals and were further evidence of how increasing business costs and falling competitiveness were hitting firms in Ireland.
"With ten years of unprecedented economic growth, Ireland should have been in the perfect position to weather the global economic downturn. Instead, the country and the economy are now paying the price for Fianna Fáil's over-dependence on the construction industry, and its determination to fuel the debt-driven housing boom," he said.
Dell is facing a market that is beginning to show signs of being hit by the economic slowdown. Earlier this month, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker showed global PC shipments were starting to slow, growing 14.6 per cent year-on-year to 69.5 million units during the first three months of 2008. While the EMEA and Asia Pacific markets are still going strong, driven by an increasing move towards portable devices, the US recorded only 3.5 per cent growth year on year.
But the PC maker is not the only firm feeling the pinch. Intel's Irish operations annnounced late last year it was seeking 200 job cuts, which it expected to come from voluntary redundancies. Since the latter half of 2006, the company cut more than 10,000 jobs from its global workforce, although Irish operations were spared the worst of the losses.
Rival chipmaker AMD announced earlier this month that it would slash 10 per cent of its workforce over the coming six months - some 1,600 jobs - after sales failed to meet expectations.
In Ireland, Motorola shed 330 positions from its Cork operations as part of a worldwide cost-cutting plan, with 10,000 positions eliminated worldwide.
Meanwhile, in February this year, 35 jobs were lost in Mayo at US-owned American Power Corporation, which makes uninterrupted power supply units for computers.