NEC'S semiconductor chip plant in Ballivor, Co Meath, will not be affected by its parent firm's decision to pull out of the memory chip market, its managing director said yesterday.

Mr Larry Murtagh, managing director of NEC Ireland, said yesterday that its Irish plant had stopped manufacturing memory chips in 1999. He said the Meath plant, which employs some 300 people, was concentrating on logic chips for the automotive and industrial sectors and NEC's decision, which will involve shedding 4,000 jobs, would have no immediate effect.