Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney has said he believes there will be some impact in Ireland following Amazon's decision to cut 18,000 jobs globally.
However, Mr Coveney said his department had been in contact with Amazon again today and that the indications are that Ireland is not going to be a "major target" of the job cuts.
Amazon employs around 5,000 people in Ireland, and last year opened a new warehouse and processing facility in Dublin.
"We will continue to talk to the company," Mr Coveney said.
"The indications are that the kinds of jobs Amazon have in Ireland are less likely to be impacted than in some other parts of the world, but that's not to say there won't be any impact in Ireland, I think there will be some, but we'll have to wait to see the detail of that later on in January," he added.
Amazon is expected to inform impacted staff on 18 January.
"We will stay in close contact with Amazon over the next ten days or so to do everything we can to protect Irish jobs," Mr Coveney said.
He said that tech jobs grew in Ireland by 10% last year and that there are still more jobs being created in the sector than lost.
"But that does not mean we shouldn't talk to companies that have announced global changes. We need to understand that, and Ireland needs to respond to it to make sure we remain competitive," he added.
In a public staff note, Amazon's Chief Executive Andy Jassy said that layoffs would now increase to more than 18,000 roles as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed.
It will largely impact the company's e-commerce and human resources organisations, he said.
Asked what impact the cuts will have on Ireland, an Amazon spokesperson told RTÉ News that the company had no further comment at the moment, beyond the message to staff posted by Mr Jassy.
The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon's roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce and represent a swift turn for a retailer that recently doubled its base pay ceiling to compete more aggressively for talent.
Amazon has more than 1.5 million workers including warehouse staff, making it America's second-largest private employer after Walmart Inc.
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Its stock rose 2% in after-hours trade.
Mr Jassy said in the note that annual planning "has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired rapidly over the last several years".
Amazon has braced for likely slower growth as soaring inflation encouraged businesses and consumers to cut back spending and its share price has halved in the past year.
The company began letting staff go in November from its devices division, with a source telling Reuters at the time it was targeting around 10,000 cuts.
The tech industry shed more than 150,000 workers in 2022, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi, a number that is continuing to grow.
The reversal of Amazon's fortunes has been stark. It changed from a business deemed essential during the pandemic for delivering goods to locked-down homes, to a company that overbuilt for demand. Its layoffs now surpass the 11,000 cuts announced last year by Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc.
Mr Jassy's note followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that the reduction would be more than 17,000 jobs. He said Amazon chose to disclose the news before informing affected staff because of a leak.
Amazon still must file certain legal notices about mass layoffs, and it plans to pay severance.
Mr Jassy said, "Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so."
