A public meeting is to be held in a west Wales seaside town on Saturday to look at ways to replace jobs lost by the recent closure of the Dewhirst ladieswear factory.

The meeting in Fishguard on Saturday will investigate means of encouraging new businesses to the area following the closure of the plant - the company's last in Wales - with the loss of 200 jobs.

The factory makes trousers for M&S

The closure follows those of the company's facilities at Cardigan and Swansea with the total loss of nearly 1,000 jobs.

Organisers of the meeting, at the Railwaymen's club, have said they will be targeting Ireland as the most likely source for new jobs and hope to attract European funding.

Lawton Phillips, who is behind the initiative, said they have set themselves a target of creating 300 jobs.

He said: "We will be working hard with the government agencies to ensure that the correct cash incentives are offered to any potential investors.

"We will be concentrating our efforts on companies in the south east of Ireland who have a proven track record and who deal mainly with the British market.

"We need to eliminate the false impression that we are on the periphery of Europe and promote ourselves as the European gateway from southern Ireland."

Talks have been held during the week with all agencies involved in a bid to find alternatives uses for the Dewhirst site in Goodwick.

But union officials said they were not hopeful.

Celtic connection

Fears for the future of Dewhirst's Fishguard factory were raised in July when the company announced it was to close its sister plant in Cardigan with the loss of 325 jobs.

The job losses at Dewhirst are the latest to hit Pembrokeshire following the closure of the ITV Digital call centre in Pembroke Dock where nearly 1,000 people were made redundant.

But Lawton Phillips is confident that salvation can be found from across the Irish Sea.

He added: " We need to tap into their way of thinking and learn from our celtic cousins how their efforts have resulted in tremendous industrial growth.

"The only thing that could inhibit our progress is apathy and self pity."