The Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce in Limerick, Maria Kelly, has said the announcement by Dell of a global reduction in jobs is a cause for concern in Limerick and the wider Mid-West region.
She said some sort of announcement was expected from Dell to realign its global business after it was overtaken as the number one PC manufacturer in the world by Hewlett Packard.
In addition to the 3,000 jobs at the Dell plant in Limerick, another 20,000 jobs in sub-supply companies throughout the Mid-West are reliant on Dell business and any kind of announcement from the company does tend to send shockwaves through the region.
Dell is expected to cut its Irish workforce by up to 450 over the coming 12 months as part of a global drive to cut costs.
Last night, the company announced that it is to shed 8,800 jobs worldwide, amounting to about 10% of its global workforce.
In a statement, the company's Chief Executive, Michael Dell, said the redundancies would be across all regions and departments.
However, the company stressed that no final decision had been made on the number of job losses in Ireland.
In recent months, Dell lost its place as number one seller of personal computers to Hewlett-Packard and its results have been poor.
Dell also employs 1,500 in Cherrywood in south Co Dublin.
Some cuts are likely to be achieved by leaving positions vacant and voluntary redundancies.
