Staff at America Online's Irish operations are likely to escape the job cuts announced by company recently, it has emerged. A spokesman for AOL in the US said there would be no implications for its Irish operations. "The cuts are primarily in the US," he said.

AOL employs 400 people in Dublin, evenly divided between its AOL Technologies Inc in Citywest Business Campus which reports to the US and its AOL Europe Operations Ltd in East Point Business Park.

AOL is cutting 1,200 jobs - or 8 per cent of its workforce - as part of its continuing reorganisation following its merger with Time Warner.