Dell seeks 100 job cuts in Limerick

Up to 100 voluntary redundancies are to be sought from the Dell factory in Limerick.

A spokeswoman said that between 80 to 100 staff would be let go as part of a worldwide 10 per cent cut in staff numbers reduction by Dell, which employs around 3,000 people in Limerick.

The sections affected include human resources, IT, management within manufacturing and marketing. The redundancy programme will run for a number of months, and the issue would be "revisited" if insufficient numbers applied, the spokeswoman said.

Dell's other main factory at Cherrywood in Dublin, where 1,500 are employed, is not affected by the announcement.

The spokeswoman said that Dell continues to hire staff and that by year end the company's overall Irish workforce would be close to the current level of 4,500.

Labour party TD for Limerick Jan O'Sullivan said the announcement was "worrying" for the city and a sign of difficulties for the high-tech sector.

"These positions at Dell are good jobs in a plant that has been a valuable source of employment for people in the Mid-West region.

"The news today comes on top of the announcements earlier this year that up to 200 Limerick jobs were under threat at Thompson Scientific, and that hi-tech jobs in Motorola and Bourn Electronics in Cork were also to go."

Ms O'Sullivan said there appeared to be a growing trend of companies long established in Ireland downsizing or re-locating to countries where costs are cheaper.