250 textile job losses confirmed

More than 250 jobs are to be lost at a textiles firm in Co Donegal, management there have confirmed.

The Unifi Europe company, based in Letterkenny, said the redundancies represented about 40% of its Irish workforce.

It said the job losses and other ways of cutting costs would be discussed with trade union representatives over the next month.

The American-owned company blamed Asian imports, inflation and rising costs for the development.

Responding to the announcement, the Labour party said it was “a devastating blow to the local community“.

Brendan Howlin called on the Government “to ensure that the haemorrhaging of jobs that has emerged during the first four months of 2003 ends immediately“.