The Tanaiste Mary Harney said she was surprised at the Gateway proposal to close its Irish and UK operations - she did not expect this announcement today.
In an interview for RTE OnBusiness, she expressed her disappointment and her concern that the closure would go ahead because of the troubles being encountered by Gateway in the European market.
Ms Harney said she had spoken to Gateway's chief executive Ted Waitt this afternoon and discussed the possibility of Gateway maintaining a support service here for its products in Europe, but it was too early to say if this would be successful.
The Tanaiste said she was not aware of any other job shocks in the pipeline, and she was very confident about the future of other major US technology companies in Ireland.
She said she believed that all of the 4,000 technology workers who had lost their jobs in the last nine months - from Motorola, Xerox, Dell, Ericsson, 3Com and others - had found alternative employment.
Ms Harney said the Government would have to be open to stopping visas and work permits for immigrants coming to work in this sector. She did not see them being cut off immediately but the move must be considered in the context of what happens in the sector.
