Heating company Glen Dimplex has announced that around 70 jobs are to be cut at its plant in Dunleer in Co Louth.
The redundancies are expected to be completed by October 2025.
"Management will work with employee representatives in Dunleer, trade unions and local training and support agencies to support colleagues through this change and to deliver appropriate outplacement and training supports," Glen Dimplex said in a statement.
The company said the decision is linked to a major contraction in the market for heat pumps across Europe due to geopolitical factors, changing policies and support schemes, and lower gas prices.
"Due to the weaker demand outlook for heat pumps across Europe in the near future, Glen Dimplex is proposing to consolidate its investment and manufacturing capacity for low carbon heating and ventilation solutions in its Newry plant rather than continuing operations in both Newry and Dunleer," the company said.
In February 2024, Glen Dimplex announced a major reorganisation and investment in its operations on the island of Ireland and in Lithuania.
At the time, the company said this would result in up to 300 redundancies in the short term but added that its workforce would increase by 200 roles by 2029.
Glen Dimplex said today that large parts of its reorganisation plans have been completed or are in progress.
It added that it remains committed to a multi-million investment in its facility in Dunleer so that it can be re-purposed to accommodate a relocation of the group's sales and distribution arm, Glen Dimplex Ireland, and its 70 roles from Cloghran, Co Dublin.
"Following these developments and previously announced changes on the island of Ireland, Glen Dimplex remains committed to being a leading player in the transition to a more sustainable world," the company added.
Labour Party TD Ged Nash said the announcement was "a disaster" for the workers and their families as well as the wider community in Dunleer and Mid-Louth.
"It sounds the death knell for good manufacturing jobs at the Dunleer plant and comes on top of another significant round redundancies at Glen Dimplex last year," Mr Nash said.
"I am calling on the company to now engage meaningfully with workers and their representatives in SIPTU to explore every alternative short of redundancies and I made that clear to them in a call this morning," he said.
"If it is the case that redundancies cannot be avoided, the company must co-operate with unions to deliver a fair, collective and genuinely consultative redundancy process," he added.
