More than 100 workers at the Sara Lee underwear manufacturers in Killarney, Co Tralee, will lose their jobs under a company restructuring plan announced yesterday.
The Chicago-based multinational, which shed 84 jobs in Killarney last November, is seeking a further 104 redundancies.
This would leave the plant, which opened in 1999, with 82 employees.
In a statement issued yesterday, the company said forecasts for the year ahead showed no pick-up in the market for low-cost seamless ladies' underwear, which has been in decline since last year.
The company plans to restructure its facility to focus on more upmarket products, which it believes can be supplied on a profitable basis from Ireland.
"The market for seamless underwear has changed dramatically in the last 18 months whereby it has become far easier for low-cost countries to compete," a company spokesman said.
"The shift makes it increasingly difficult for the Killarney operation to remain competitive."
The company will hold meetings with SIPTU and other groups next Monday.
A spokesman said it hoped to agree a redundancy package by the end of July which would be "voluntary in the first instance".
The 84 staff who were let go last year received redundancy terms of four weeks' pay per year, inclusive of statutory payments.
It is understood that the forthcoming redundancy package will be similar.
The regional secretary of SIPTU's south-west region, Mr Joe O'Flynn, said yesterday that the union aims to explore the possibility of the number of job losses being reduced through alternatives such as short-time working and other flexible arrangements.
While the announcement was a "devastating blow" to people involved, it was not a fait accompli, he said.
Mr O'Flynn said the union would also call on the company and the State to explore options to increase its orders to maintain jobs.
The Labour Party's spokesman on unemployment issues, Ms Breeda Moynihan-Cronin, said the job losses were a further " shocking blow" to employment in the South Kerry area, which has already suffered a number of setbacks in recent months.
Ms Moynihan Cronin said she would raise the matter in the Dail. next week and seek the establishment of an employment task force in Killarney.
"The unemployment problem in Killarney and the surrounding are has now become particularly acute," she said.
"All of these lay-offs are particularly hard to bear in light of ongoing difficulties in the tourist industry and a drop of over 20 per cent in tourist business in Kerry comapared with last year.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said that if the unacceptable pace of recent job losses is to be reversed "we must take whatever action is necessary to ensure that Ireland remains a competitive and attractive location for business".