The Taoiseach today paid tribute to workers at a Co Meath electronics plant who were yesterday told they were to be made redundant.
Mr Ahern told the Dáil that the Government would help the 350 workers at NEC Semiconductors in Ballivor find new jobs when the plant closes in September.
As Siptu and management began talks on a redundancy package, Mr Ahern paid tribute to the workers at the long-established plant.
"They have been good, committed workers for three decades. They have provided loyal and quality service to NEC over the years," Mr Ahern said.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin last night said FÁS would begin an immediate assessment of skills and arrange any retraining needed.
In the Dáil today, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny blamed the Government's failure to address escalating business costs for the decline of the manufacturing sector. He said the NEC losses were the latest in a series of manufacturing redundancies which had reached over 33,400 in the last four years.
"The Government has failed to tackle the high cost of doing business here and that is having a very detrimental effect on our previous attractiveness as a location for foreign direct investment and that is compounded by intense competition from overseas," Mr Kenny said.
He said inflation for utilities and energy was twice the Eurozone rate and was undermining competitiveness. The slow roll-out of broadband, and poor energy and port infrastructure was damaging Ireland's attractiveness for foreign investors, he continued.
NEC said yesterday it could no longer operate in Ireland because of the cost-base and was transferring work carried out at Ballivor to Singapore, Beijing and Malaysia.
Mr Ahern acknowledged that manufacturing was in decline but said the economic model Ireland was pursuing was aimed at upskilling the workforce to attract better quality jobs.
Some 95,000 jobs were created in 2005 and Ireland was attracting more US investment than any other European country, Mr Ahern said.
"The only way we can protect ourselves is by better R&D, more innovation, higher quality skilled jobs," the Taoiseach said."We are no longer a low-cost economy and we don't want to compete at that level
Meanwhile, talks on a redundancy package for the 300 full-time and 50 past-time workers began today.
Following yesterday's announcement managing director at the Ballivor plant Kenji Yamashiro said the company was proud of its workers and would "do everything we can to make this transition as easy as possible for them".