It was business as usual at Intel's massive Fab 24 construction site yesterday, despite its earlier announcement that work would cease over coming months until next year.

The hum of construction work filled the air and trucks and vans arrived and left regularly. But the activity only masked the reality that most of the workers and machinery would be off the site by the end of the month.

For many workers leaving the site yesterday afternoon, the decision to delay work until the beginning of 2002 was a surprise.

"It's been a bit of a shock," said a worker. "It's a very big site with a lot of money put into it." Another said rumours of the rescheduling had been circulating for several days.

"They just said that it was closing tomorrow and that, in a year or so, it'd start up again," he said.

Mr Thomas White, chairman of the construction industrial committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said the news was received with shock.

"All of these workers were engaged on the understanding that they would have security of at least two years' continuous work," he said.

Many of the workers to whom The Irish Times talked were contractors. "We have other work because we're working for contract firms," one said. "But there's a lot of men in there working directly and they'll have no work to go to. They'll probably be laid off."

"There's work out there but not enough for everyone, I'd say," said another worker.

There seemed to be some confusion over the announcement. One contract worker said he had yet to be officially told his job was gone.

"We haven't been told anything really," he said. "There's a rumour going around. Everybody's talking about it, but I don't really know what's happening." Perhaps more worrying for the construction industry in particular and the economy in general was the comment from one worker.

"It's bad news, but it's just the start of it. There's a lot more to come."