Irish broker Davy to cut jobs over market turmoil

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish brokerage Davy said on Monday it was likely to cut 10 to 15 percent of its 520 jobs to slash costs because turbulence in international and domestic financial markets has reduced trading volumes.

"The detail of the proposed cost reduction programme will be determined in consultation with staff but it is likely to include some redundancies (impacting 10 percent to 15 percent of staff), some salary adjustments as well as a thorough review of business overheads," it said in a statement.

The global credit crisis has hit Ireland's open economy at a time when a downturn in the domestic construction sector was putting the brakes on growth after more than a decade of 'Celtic Tiger' boom. Several analysts now predict a recession for 2008.

In the first quarter of 2008, Ireland's gross domestic product fell 1.5 percent year-on-year, after growth of 5.5 percent in the final quarter of 2007, and the government expects growth of only 0.5 percent in the whole of 2008.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by David Cowell)