More than 300 technology jobs were lost yesterday following the closure of a contract manufacturing plant owned by Celestica and further restructuring at the struggling telecoms firm Lucent.

Celestica, a Canadian firm which during the height of the technology bubble employed 1,000 Irish staff, said it would close its Swords facility with the loss of some 250 full-time jobs.

A further 60 part-time positions will be lost at the Swords plant, which was one of the first high technology factories ever built in Dublin in the late 1970s.

The job losses are a blow for north Dublin which has experienced a spate of redundancies over the past two years including high-profile factory closures such as Motorola and Gateway.

Celestica, which manufactures printed circuit boards and components for the telecoms industry, said the closure would take place over a number of months. Employees will be offered redundancy packages worth up to six weeks for each year of service.

Management at Celestica's Swords plant told staff yesterday that the redundancies were a result of the continued downturn in the telecoms sector.

The job losses are part of Celestica's previously announced restructuring programme which will see the firm shed 15 per cent of its 40,000 strong workforce by early 2004.

Celestica had already cut 750 jobs at its Swords facility, as demand for the electronic components which it manufactures slumped during the economic downturn which began in 2001.

Yet in August 2002, when the firm announced its last round of redundancies, Celestica's group managing director in Ireland, Mr Terry O'Shea, said the firm was "committed to maintaining its strategic presence in the State."

But a recovery in the telecoms sector has not materialised and last month the firm announced financial results which showed its revenues had slumped by 26 per cent in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2002.

To cope with the difficult economic climate Celestica has been shifting more of its manufacturing capacity overseas. It has operations in Latin America, Asia and eastern Europe, where costs are lower.

It plans to have two-thirds of its output in Asia by the end of next year, compared with just 20 per cent two years ago.

The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said the closure of Celestica was a shocking blow for the workforce and the community. But she said new jobs for the area would be announced within a week or so.

The Celestica site was one of the first locations for a major technology investment by the US firm Amdahl. It was subsequently bought by Motorola after it withdrew from Ireland, who in turn sold it on to Celestica as part of an outsourcing deal .

Meanwhile, telecoms equipment firm Lucent confirmed it had made a further 60 staff redundant at its facility in south Co Dublin yesterday.

In a statement the company said it had implemented the final phase of its outsourcing programme in the Republic. The firm has cut its workforce by more than 200 in the past two years.