Tánaiste Leo Varadkar not expecting ‘significant’ Amazon job losses in Ireland

He said initial advice from the IDA is that no job losses are anticipated here, although he said “of course, that could change”.

The Tánaiste spoke out following US media reports that Amazon was planning to cut 10,000 jobs globally.

He also said he was not expecting significant job losses from Intel.

Mr Varadkar said: "We had good engagement with Intel as well in the last couple of days and while we've no absolute guarantees from Intel, we're not expecting significant types of job losses from that company."

He revealed Twitter has not yet sent his department a formal collective redundancy notification following its recent announcement.

However, it has received indications of job losses from Ulster Bank, Wayflyer and Intercom.

He said his thoughts are very much with the people being made redundant and the Government would stand behind them in providing assistance in relation to redundancy payments, welfare and support in setting up a business.

Mr Varadkar said it was never good news when you see a business pare back its staff, but he said there are still lots of vacancies in the economy.

He said there are more businesses seeking to recruit and retain staff than lay them off, and positive job announcements in the last few days.

Microsoft is still hiring, he said, and Apple is expanding in Cork.

He said there had only been positive news on the jobs front for the best part of two years and now much more of a mix, but net jobs growth is still projected for next year.