New details have emerged of how the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) sought to manage last January's announcement of massive job losses in Dell's Limerick plant by minimising "speculatory stories" and having "scripted responses" ready.

As Dell Ireland this weekend confirmed plans for around 230 further job cuts at its Dublin and Limerick plants, an internal IDA communications memo shows that the IDA's media plan surrounding the earlier announcement of 1,900 job losses in Limerick included a detailed "Questions and Answers" section.

This aimed to brief IDA and government spokespeople on how to handle anticipated questions in view of the company's cost cutting plans.

For example, if staff were asked whether the announcement of 1,900 manufacturing job losses at Dell's Limerick plant was proof that Ireland is "no longer competitive", they were advised to reply that this was "part of our economic evolution".

Elsewhere, when asked if the job losses meant the IDA had "failed the region –haven't you?", the appropriate response, according to the document, was to highlight the IDA's attempts to "diversify the base of companies operating in the region" while "fully appreciating the impact to employees in Dell and their sub-supply base".

"Closures and transfers of operations are a normal part of economic activity in a global, open market economy," it also suggests.

The document notes that the objectives of the media plan include "a consistent message from Dell, IDA and government that minimised speculatory stories", the "alignment of all stakeholders" and ensuring that "scripted responses" would be ready for both the IDA and Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment press offices.

But its contents have prompted strong criticism from local representatives that the agency tried to place a "spin" on the announcement.

Labour Party TD for Limerick east Jan O'Sullivan said that while it was important for the IDA to maintain the confidence of multinational companies such as Dell, the document "does smack a bit too much of spin and trying to gloss over the reality of the announcement for the lives of the 1,900 workers, their families and the many others who were affected."

According to the memo entitled 'Dell briefing document and communications plans', dated January 2009, the IDA put in place a detailed timeline to help coordinate the announcement on 8 January that Dell was pulling its manufacturing operations from its Limerick plant.

In a section entitled "IDA reactive key Questions and Answers", the agency also addresses the question of how long it had known about Dell's plans.

"Senior management at Dell and the IDA have met on an ongoing basis since Dell informed IDA of the global examination of its business model last year. The nature of any client communications is they must remain confidential. IDA has continued to make proposals throughout this review in an effort to maintain and maximise the investment in Limerick and Ireland," it states.

On the issue of what steps the IDA and government had taken to stop the transfer of jobs to Poland, it said the IDA had been involved in "detailed discussions with Dell throughout their strategic review at a very senior level.

"A large range of proposals and scenarios were reviewed by Dell but their decision based on commercial factors is that the needs of their shareholders are better served under a new business model."

If staff were asked was there no future for ICT or manufacturing in Ireland, the response was to be that "there is a future for manufacturing in Ireland" while a number of recent announcements and the size of ICT investments "belie this statement" in relation to ICT.

Another section, entitled "Additional Sound Bites" provides a range of data relating to how previous setbacks had led to jobs growth. The carefully choreographed timeline outlined in the document included Dell's announcement to employees at 9am that 1,900 manufacturing and support positions would be "impacted" over the next 12 months, with a Dell press release going out the media half an hour later.

At 10am, a statement by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and the government would be released, while 10 minutes later the IDA would issue a statement from its CEO, Barry O'Leary, the document reveals.

How the IDA?prepares answers for the tough questions

Q:What investments has the IDA in the pipeline for Limerick?

A: As you know IDA never discusses specific "possible" investments on which it is working prior to a public announcement by the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment.

Q: Isn't this proof that Ireland is no longer competitive?

A: Absolutely not, sadly, closures and transfers are a normal facet of an open market economy in the globalised world of the twenty first century; this is part of our economic evolution

Q: When Digital Electronics Corporation left Galway, IDA and government said this could never be allowed happen again – you have failed the region – haven't you?

A: Fully appreciating the impact to employees in Dell and their sub-supply base, closures and transfers of operations are a normal part of economic activity in a global, open market economy

Q: IDA and Government have driven Ireland toward a knowledge based economy- there is nothing for normal workers here?

A:While it is true that IDA wants to see Ireland become an innovation led economy a wide variety of employment opportunities would still exist ... positions for Operations Technicians are available in many IDA client companies