RTE News reports that Hasbro Ireland are planning to cut 22 jobs from their workforce of just under 250 employees as part of a plan to improve competitiveness and reduce costs.

Pat Gilhooly, head of global manufacturing at Hasbro Ireland, said: 'We regret having to seek these job losses given the current economic climate in Ireland but it is absolutely necessary that we reduce our costs now in order to protect as many as possible of the remaining jobs at the Waterford plant.  The continued weakness of the US dollar has also had a negative impact on our competitiveness.

The redundancies we are now seeking are designed to align the core workforce with the anticipated level of market demand during the off-peak period and avoid short-time working as happened in the early part of this year.  The competitiveness measures we are seeking are necessary due to the imbalance between costs in Ireland and in the countries in which our products are sold."

The firm is hoping to implement the redundancies on a voluntary basis. A competitive redundancy package will be on offer for employees who fit the selection criteria.