Almost 220 job losses have been announced by two companies in Tipperary and Monaghan.
Around 130 jobs are to go at Grove Turkeys in Monaghan, which has announced a cost-cutting plan to secure the company's future. The company said it had started talks with workers and unions on the job losses.
Meanwhile, the Merriott Radiator plant in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, is to close with the loss of 90 jobs.
Grove Turkeys blamed its move on 'major market changes' and intense competition from overseas producers. The changes will see the company moving to a seasonal production cycle supplying the peak Easter and Christmas markets. The company plans to continue with poultry processing.
Staff numbers will be reduced from a current level of about 200 workers to a core team of
70 with some seasonal workers being taken on during the peak periods.
The rationalisation programme will also affect 85 farmers on both sides of the border.
Grove Turkeys was founded in 1972 and was part of Kerry Group until December 2006 when it was acquired by its current management team in a management buy-out.
The company said the EU poultry industry had gone through a rationalisation and consolidation in recent years in an effort to compete with cheap imports and world trade liberalisation. Grove Turkeys said high production costs and an escalation in feed costs had also hit its business, while the weakness of sterling had put pressure on its exports to the UK market.
The Merriott Radiator plant has been in operation since 1967 and is owned by the Quinn Group, following its acquisition of radiator company Barlo in 2004.
A Quinn statement said the decision to close the plant followed a review which found that it had become difficult for it to compete in UK and European markets.
The company said talks with unions had started and it hoped the lay-offs would happen by negotiation and over an agreed timescale.
