Up to 210 jobs are to be cut at Pfizer across plants in Grange Castle, Dublin, Ringaskiddy in Cork, and Newbridge in Kildare.

The cut will reduce the workforce by 5% and is part of the US pharmaceutical giant €1.3 billion cost-cutting programme announced back in May.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said he hopes the Government will help and support workers impacted by tonight's news. 

“It is very upsetting and worrying news for workers at Pfizer,” he said. 

“They’re a major employer in Cork; they’re been there for decades at this stage and the workers have played a major role in building up the company in Ireland. 

“I know the workers are worried fort the future and I hope Government departments do everything they can [to help them].” 

A booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 is administered at a pharmacy clinic in the US state of Texas in October 2021. Picture by: Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

Trade union SIPTU has urged Pfizer to meet with them to discuss the redundancies. 

“This worrying trend in closures with job losses in the hundreds, in what had been considered very secure and indeed good employment, is something that the Government must focus on immediately with a view to arresting such decline,” a spokesperson said. 

"The loss of these jobs in Newbridge will have a significant economic effect to the detriment of the wider Kildare area and will be of huge concern to our 700 members and their families at the Newbridge facility."

SIPTU represents 700 workers at Pfizer’s Kildare site. 

Main image: Pfizer plant in Grange Castle, South County Dublin. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie