WORKERS' REACTION: They arrived in their droves for the company's 9am announcement. Such were the traffic volumes, many abandoned their cars on a nearby dual carriageway and walked to the plant.
Father-of-one Thomas McNamara (28) of Keyes Park in Limerick had been working on the weekend shift at Dell for the past four years. He said the announcement wasn't a surprise, but many workers still walked out of the meeting before the question and answer session got under way.
"They reckon around 400 jobs will be gone in April, another couple of hundred gone three months after that, and it will all be gone in 10 months. They asked if we had questions, but the majority of people got up and walked out to their cars . . . there was a lot of anger," he said.
"People were expecting it, I was myself and I would have been shocked if they told us our jobs were safe, a lot of people would have been shocked if they said things would be okay," he added.
Denis Ryan (53) from Newcastlewest, who was made redundant when Krupps in Limerick closed in 1992, said Dell workers had been working under a "cloud" for the past two years.
"I'm disappointed that the New York press could tell two years ago that Dell was closing and management have kept that quiet. They've used this recession to close the place," he said.
"I feel that while Dell made a decision to pull out of here, it didn't happen last week or when this recession came, it happened two or three years ago.
"They've just confirmed what everybody knew. They just let us work away under a cloud and denied speculation, but at the end of the day, they were pulling out from two or maybe three years ago," he added.
Sharon Kelly (27) from Prospect in Limerick city has been working in Dell for the past 10 years. She bought a house two years ago and has a car loan and is worried about getting another job.
"I don't think the Government did very much. All they are doing is lining their own pockets. They are not thinking of the smaller person, but you can be guaranteed that they won't get a pay cut," she said.
"We'll have to look for another job. I'm hoping for the best outcome, but the way things are looking at the moment, there seems to be more jobs going everyday," she added.
Many workers expressed anger yesterday at the severance package offered by Dell, which is the equivalent of six weeks pay for every year of service, capped at 52 weeks.
"There are a lot of families working in Dell and they are going to be devastated. It's unreal, just unreal," said Niall Sheehy (39) from Knockaderry in Co Limerick.
"I mean there's a chap inside there and he's there 16 years and he's only going to get 52 weeks pay. It's just sickening," he added.
Nenagh native Eamon Ryan (60) called the package "paltry" and said he was angry that many long-serving members of staff who had seen Dell through difficult times would only be entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks pay.
"The redundancy package is six weeks pay per year of service based on base-rate pay, it does not include overtime earnings and it does not include shift allowances which it should do," he said.
Dominic McNamara (23), a qualified plasterer, joined Dell last summer because "there was no work for him in the building trade". He was upbeat as he went into the meeting, but admitted that the mood among many of his colleagues was "sombre".
Less than half an hour later, the young Dell worker left the building with tears in his eyes, unable to speak. "I can't talk, I just want to go home," he said.