The Irish Horseracing Authority's rationalisation plans for the Tote were outlined yesterday and will involve job losses, the transfer of staff and resources to the new Autotote company headquarters in Co Longford and a change in the recruitment policy of part-time staff.

There are currently 37 full-time jobs in the Tote, and although an IHA statement said they planned "a net reduction of nine full-time positions", SIPTU branch secretary Liam Peppard saidthat a total of 27 full-time positions could be lost.

"We had a meeting last week where the plans were revealed to us for the first time. It's now a question of notifying our people and going through it in some detail before responding," Peppard added. The IHA maintain that the key elements of the plans have been discussed with Tote staff and their trade union representatives in the past few days, and they emphasise that there will be no compulsory redundancies. The IHA's aim is the reduction of the cost base of the Tote from 18 per cent of turnover to 12 per cent, which will result in a saving of £900,000 per year.

"There shouldn't be any great surprises in this," said IHA chief executive Noel Ryan yesterday.

"Our first series of meetings with the staff and their representatives have been exploratory and letting them know what we want to achieve. We're hoping to achieve our aims through agreement, but we will be impressing on the staff that our overall objectives as set out in the five-year strategic plan must be achieved if racing is to progress."

The plan also includes the transfer, on a voluntary basis, of 10 full-time staff to Autotote.

The IHA envisage negotiations lasting until November and the new Autote system starting in April.