Spirit, the Irish subsidiary of pan-European telecoms group Interoute, has issued 30 staff with redundancy notices and is in the final stages of negotiating a deal to sell on its customers.

Just 20 staff will remain with Spirit following the redundancies to help it integrate its customers with a successful bidder for the business. Some 60 people have already left the company this year.

Sources indicated last night that Esat was the most likely bidder for Spirit's residential customer base, which is estimated at about 60,000 users.

It is understood Spirit management and Esat have negotiated at length a deal that could be signed shortly.

Spirit is the last Interoute subsidiary in Europe to sell its residential telecoms business and focus on providing fibre capacity.

A spokeswoman for Spirit confirmed the 30 redundancies yesterday and said the company would work to help its staff find alternative employment.

She also confirmed Spirit was in advanced negotiations with a buyer for the business.

Interoute's decision to vacate the Irish marketplace is yet another blow for telecoms liberalisation in the Republic.

Only about half of the 47 general telecoms licences issued by the telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, are still being used by firms in the Republic.