About 170 workers are to be laid off at manufacturing plants in Clonmel, Co Tipperary and Clones, Co Monaghan.

In Clonmel, the Ronan Group, which produces leather goods, announced the lay-offs - at least on a temporary basis - of more than 80 jobs yesterday. The company also has a distribution office in Dublin.

The group had already laid off a number of staff in recent months and said in a letter to the workforce yesterday that the economic climate meant that almost all of the remaining staff would have to be laid off.

The company promised, however, that the action would be reviewed early in May.

"It comes on the back of about 100 people at Fair Oaks Foods and the loss of about 40 jobs for Manor Products. Taken together it is a fair old blow to the town,", the Independent TD for Tipperary South, Mr Seamus Healy, told The Irish Times.

Meanwhile in Clones, Sinn Féin TD Mr Caoimhghín O'Caolaín said Containers and Pressure Vessels (CPV) was to close with a "devastating" loss of 85 jobs in the town.

He said a proposed takeover of the plant had fallen through.