Motorola, the electronics and mobile phone company, yesterday indicated that it was entering into an "employee consultation process" which could potentially result in the loss of 350 jobs at its facility in Mahon, Cork city.
A company spokesman declined to confirm the total shutdown of the plant. However, he conceded the American firm was considering a proposal to cease all engineering functions carried out at the site.
"If this proposal was to be confirmed, it would result in the vast majority of employees at the site being at risk of redundancy and could make the site unsustainable as a Motorola facility.
"Motorola fully intends to carry out the consultation process with the highest possible level of consideration for all of its employees in Cork at this very difficult time."
The possible loss of Motorola to Cork would be a major body blow to a region which prides itself on being at the forefront in relation to research and development within the electronics industry.
Yesterday evening Opposition TDs and representatives of Cork Chamber of Commerce said the announcement was a major disappointment for the city. Cork North Central Labour TD Kathleen Lynch insisted Cork could ill afford to lose 350 high-tech software development jobs.
"These are not old-style jobs in heavy industry, but jobs based in the knowledge economy, an area that has contributed very significantly to Ireland's economic growth over the past 15 years. This is part of an increasing pattern we have seen, with companies like this choosing to opt to relocate to Asia or other regions where labour and other costs are lower." Ms Lynch said the real tragedy of the situation was that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, had received warnings since the beginning of the year from a number of sources that the plant was in jeopardy, but seemingly did nothing.
Ms Lynch added that given the value of the Motorola jobs, one would have expected the Minister and the industrial agencies to have made a real effort to save them.
Cork Chamber of Commerce chief executive Conor Healy said that Motorola had contributed significantly to the local economy over many years. He claimed that the news of possible jobs losses at Motorola was a hard pill for Corkonians to swallow, particularly in light of recent redundancies at Bupa Ireland and FCI Ireland.
Mr Healy urged the management team at Motorola to work with all the relevant organisations to prevent the job losses from occurring.
Fine Gael Cork South Central candidate Cllr Deirdre Clune said the job losses would be a terrible setback for Cork. She said the announcement showed just how precarious the Irish economy had become as result of declining competitiveness.
Earlier this month Motorola said it intended to cut 3,500 jobs internationally - or about 5 per cent of its workforce - as part of a restructuring plan to reduce costs. The announcement was made after it experienced a disappointing 48 per cent decline in fourth-quarter profits. It has been forced to slash prices recently to keep up with competition for share of a market that is dominated by Finland's Nokia.
Motorola has been a major employer in Cork for 25 years and has been based at the Mahon site for 16 years.