A PLANT in Naas, Co Kildare, is to cut 245 jobs, staff were told yesterday.

UNION leaders warned of a fresh “emergency” in manufacturing after almost 1,500 job losses were announced on another black day for industry in Britain and the North.

A former Lord Mayor of Belfast tonight urged management and staff at the troubled Belfast aerospace company Shorts to do what they could to safeguard its future.

Management at Shorts Aerospace in Belfast have advised their workers to expect up to 2,000 redundancies because of the fallout from the attacks in the United States earlier this month.