Opposition parties and groups representing the unemployed are demanding Government action to stem the increasing rate of job losses after hundreds of jobs were cut for the second day in succession.
Job losses announced yesterday by Tayto, Diageo and Oran Pre-Cast in Galway were described by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, as "shocking news".
They brought to more than 500 the number of workers who have lost their jobs in major enterprises since Thursday. More than 11,700 people joined the live register in June, more than in any single month since 1986.
The biggest round of job cuts announced yesterday was at the crisps and snack foods maker Tayto, which is to close its Terenure, Dublin plant in October with the loss of 164 jobs.
A further 15 staff are to be made redundant at the company's Coolock facility, also in Dublin, which employs 180.
The Guinness parent company, Diageo, is letting 100 workers go in the Republic and 35 in the North, while Oran Pre-Cast is laying off 40 of its 130 staff.
The job losses follow the announcement on Thursday of the closure of Manufacturing Services Ltd in Athlone, which employed 200.
Ms Harney said she was disappointed at the developments and promised that the full resources of State agencies would be made available to help workers find alternative employment.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, however, said it feared nothing was being done to assist companies that were in danger of folding.
Calling for immediate action to stem the current rate of job losses, it said inflation and the high cost of insurance in particular needed to be addressed.
Mr Eric Conroy, the INOU general secretary, said all industries including manufacturing, electronics and services were being affected by the increasing number of company and factory closures.
"The Government needs to take strong action to ensure that alternative employment opportunities are available for these workers in the same localities," he said.
The Labour Party TD, Dr Mary Upton, said 1,400 people had lost their jobs in the past fortnight. "We have now reached unemployment levels unparalleled since the height of the economic recession in the 1980s.
"The only response from the Government is to sit back and hope for another economic upturn," she said.
Mr Eamon Ryan TD, of the Green Party, called on Ms Harney to review industrial policy.
"It worked well for the past 20 years, but it's not working now and we're in danger of ending up with a number of large multinational pharmaceutical and technology companies, but no indigenous industry whatsoever," he said.
The Government, he claimed, was over dependent on its corporation tax strategy, and new initiatives to support indigenous industry were needed.
Tayto said its decision to reduce job numbers followed a "comprehensive strategic view" which resulted in a decision to outsource its snack foods range to Largo Foods.
Its remaining 406 employees would be unaffected by the move, it said, and it would be investing €5 million in the Coolock plant.
Although still a strong market leader in the snack foods sector, the Cantrell & Cochrane-owned company has been placed under pressure for market share by imported brands, including the heavily-marketed Walkers crisps. Staff at the Terenure plant had been on short-time working in March.
The decision by Diageo to let go 135 staff in sales, marketing and support areas followed a wide-ranging review of its Irish operations.
This was undertaken, the company said yesterday, "in the face of a worsening business environment, with the alcohol drinks market expected to be down 5 per cent this year".
The company continues to employ almost 2,600 people in Ireland, more than 2,000 of them in the Republic.
Oran Pre-Cast blamed the 40 temporary lay-offs on a fall-off in demand for its products and significant cost increases. The decision, it said, was not related to the €500,000 fine imposed on it last week for a breach of the health and safety laws.