A total of 470 job losses were announced at three separate companies yesterday as the spate of redundancies from international and Irish firms continues.

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis said it was closing its plant in Waterford with the loss of 200 jobs, while mobile-phone company O2 Ireland confirmed that it was seeking 100 redundancies among its 1,800 workforce.

A further 170 jobs are to go at packaging company Ire-Tex after the High Court made orders for the winding up of the company on Tuesday. About 85 people had already been laid off from the company in January.

The winding-up order came when the company was unable to find a new investor after its main customer, Dell, terminated a long-running contract.

O2 Ireland said it was now entering into a 30-day consultation process with staff as it seeks 100 compulsory redundancies following an annual review of the business.

O2's decision follows that of rival Vodafone, which is to cut 80 jobs, and is largely seen as a response to increased competition in the Irish mobile-phone market from new entrants such as Meteor.

"Anyone following the mobile-phone market will see how it has changed and we have to acknowledge that and respond to that," said a spokeswoman for O2.

"We have to compete as effectively as we can. The company is looking right across the business for efficiencies and cost savings and, unfortunately, this is one of the steps we have to take," she added.

Waterford TD Brian O'Shea (Labour) said the announcement of the proposed closure of the Sanofi-Aventis plant in Waterford was a very significant loss to the city and to the southeast, and was a worrying example of the wider haemorrhaging of highly-skilled jobs.

"It has been a bad week on the jobs front for the country, and Munster especially, with significant cutbacks at factories in Nenagh, Cork and Limerick. For too long, the Government has been complacent about the employment picture. This complacency has resulted in announcements such as we have had today," he said.