“Today’s news is extremely disappointing, and my foremost concern is for those workers affected and their families,” said Dr Farry.
“It is important to reiterate the skills of Bombardier workers in Northern Ireland are first-class and the ongoing losses appear to be based on global factors.
“This is the third time Bombardier has adjusted the timeframe for the cuts, so the question needs to be asked is this simply an expedition of the originally announced redundancies or the precursor to more job losses?
“As strong as it is, the manufacturing sector here continues to receive a number of blows, and I would encourage the Executive to directly help the workers affected by this announcement. It may not be directly linked to Brexit but we need to be conscious it and uncertainty over access to markets makes it very difficult to further develop manufacturing at present.”