The Irish economy will lose 9,500 jobs and €114 million when Dell’s plan to close its Limerick-based manufacturing plant, which employs around 3,000 people, is enacted, according to a report from a government think tank.

Details of the unpublished report, written in December 2008 by Forfás, Ireland’s national policy advisory body for enterprise and science, have emerged this week in Irish newspapers.

On top of the sharp decline in local spending power, the loss of jobs will also cost the Irish exchequer €173 million in employee tax contributions.

Irish Labour Party deputy Jan O’Sullivan described the reports findings as ‘unfortunately accurate’.

Dell revealed in January 2009 that it was to move its EMEA manufacturing base to Poland, where wages can reportedly be as little as a quarter of those typically paid in Ireland.